The NBA drew its highest opening weekend playoff ratings in more than a decade. Last weekend, the NBA averaged 4 million viewers across TNT, ESPN and ABC.

It turns out that when a league stops preaching politics and focusing on one single player, LeBron James, people choose to still watch basketball.

That’s not surprising to OutKick readers. We informed the NBA the day after the Lakers were eliminated from playoff contention that the playoffs would thrive without LeBron involved.