It is ridiculous no Phoenix Suns games will be nationally televised

The Phoenix Suns are one of only two teams in the Disney bubble who will not have one of their games nationally televised.

Well, this is some crap. So much for the entire post I wrote last week about the millions of new eyeballs that will get to watch the Phoenix Suns play in the Disney bubble on national television. In an absolutely absurd decision, exactly zero of the Suns’ eight remaining regular-season games will be nationally televised.

The game against the LA Clippers is going to be on NBA TV, but that is expanded cable package channel is the closest a national audience will get to the Suns during their time in Orlando.

Not one Phoenix Suns game will be nationally televised.

The Suns join the Washington Wizards as the only other team not to be nationally televised during a global pandemic when there will be (as of now; who knows what baseball will do) no other major sports to televise.

Think about that.

ESPN has approximately 287 networks and has been regularly airing Korean baseball and grown men throwing bags into a hole on a wooden for four hours straight on Saturday afternoons. You’re telling me they can’t squeeze in Devin Booker versus Bradley Beal on ESPN 2 on a Friday evening?

Not even on the Ocho?

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This is a prime opportunity to mimic the NCAA tournament NCAA schedule and broadcast multiple games on multiple networks.

Yet, there are only three networks showing any games nationally: ESPN, TNT, and ABC. I’m sure there are some nuanced contractual issues with why this is the case surrounding local affiliates like Fox Sports Arizona (presumably Suns game will be televised here) but are we not making exceptions during a global pandemic?

One of the reasons the NBA wanted to get to 70 games was because of these local TV contracts, so let’s say they were stuck with what they had. Still, there is no excuse for excluding two out of the 22 teams from national TV. If there are limited production opportunities, okay, and I get that the Los Angeles Lakers are going to draw a larger audience than the Phoenix Suns, but not even one game?

It is the least the Suns could get for assuming a fair amount of risk by playing at all. And yet, here we are, with the team once again being shunned from the spotlight.

Ridiculous.