Oklahoma City Thunder and Indiana Pacers in the NBA Finals: The revenge of the “small markets”

It's not New York, nor is it California. Far from the bright lights of the city that never sleeps, or the metropolises home to Hollywood and Silicon Valley, the NBA Finals , which begin Thursday, June 5 (in the night between Thursday and Friday, Paris time), see two of the smallest markets in the major North American basketball league face off. The best team of the regular season and led by the MVP ( Most Valuable Player ) of the Year, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, the Oklahoma City Thunder face the Indiana Pacers, based in Indianapolis, in a best-of-seven matchup. This is a duel between cities of 1.4 and 2 million inhabitants respectively and franchises with little appeal outside their territories, in the central United States.

This matchup between two teams that have never won the title in their respective cities – the SuperSonics, ancestors of the Thunder, were crowned when they played in Seattle; the Pacers, for their part, have won several crowns in the ABA, the NBA's defunct rival – is enticing from a sporting perspective. Less so, perhaps, in terms of business opportunities: by eliminating the New York Knicks in the Eastern Conference Finals, the Indiana players deprived the NBA of the Big Apple's vibrant crowd and of much-needed revenue – in merchandise sales, ticket sales, or sponsorships.

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