OKLAHOMA CITY: It’s No. 25 Indiana vs. No. 47 Oklahoma City in the NBA Finals.

That’s not their seeding. That’s their media market ranking. To some, that might matter. To others, it probably won’t — and probably shouldn’t — matter whatsoever.

A title matchup that starts Thursday night between the Pacers and Thunder — two young, fun teams that score a ton and are led by marketable stars in reigning MVP Shai Gilgeous-Alexander for Oklahoma City and Olympic gold medalist Tyrese Haliburton for Indiana — is the type of series that real basketball fans clamor for. It has everything: star power, good coaching, All-Stars on both sides. And it adds to the NBA’s recent run of parity.

That’s the good news. Here’s the inevitable other side: The ratings, especially at the start of the series, probably aren’t going to be good because the home markets are so small. Those who like the NBA won’t be dissuaded by that. Those who don’t like the NBA will tout it as great failure.

“I think this finals is a great representation with the two teams that are in it,” Thunder coach Mark Daigneault said. “You know, they’re teams that play good, exciting styles of basketball. Players that have great individual stories, teams that have a great story collectively. And we’re proud to be a part of that.”

People are watching; they just may not be watching on television. The social media tracking site Videocites says NBA content is getting consumed at a 64 percent higher clip than last season — 32 billion views and counting so far in these playoffs. Gilgeous-Alexander is the most viewed player, Haliburton is No. 3 and playoff clips of those two have about 1.5 billion views between them to this point.

That’s billion, with a B. And speaking of that, there are 76 billion reasons the NBA won’t be bothered by whatever the ratings are over the next couple of weeks.

The new media rights deals — an 11-year, $76 billion pact between the NBA and broadcast partners Disney (ABC/ESPN), Peacock (NBC) and Amazon (Prime Video) that kicks in at the start of next season — show that clearly somebody is watching NBA games or consuming NBA content. The days of straight relying on Nielsen ratings seem to be long gone, with more and more people ditching cable for streaming and more and more young fans just watching everything on their phones and often in condensed versions.

If the ratings tank for Pacers-Thunder, those deals are still worth $76 billion. The ad buys for these playoffs have long been paid for. So, the numbers for this series are largely irrelevant to the NBA’s bottom line.

Haliburton was asked Tuesday what fans who watch will see if they tune in to these finals.

“I think (they’ll see) two high-level teams that play an elite style of basketball, who share the ball really well, a lot of different people that can chip in,” Haliburton said. “I think that’s the exciting part about this. I don’t want to say it’s like a passing of the torch because the old heads are still here. They’re still playing very, very well. But definitely to see two young teams, two young organizations, fighting to win a championship, I think is a very big deal.”

Late in the regular season, as numbers were bouncing back from a slow start to the season, NBA Commissioner Adam Silver said the league’s ratings were down about 2 percent from a year ago.

“But in this environment, where particularly when you’re largely featured in legacy media and particularly cable, and no question cable subscriptions are going down, that seems like a victory,” Silver said.

In short, nobody at the league office is panicking about ratings, especially right now. Whichever team wins will be the seventh different champion in the last seven seasons, and without question the Thunder and Pacers will be featured in more national broadcasts next season than they were this season and their ratings will be higher — as proven by recent finals runs by Milwaukee, Denver and Dallas. Go ahead and expect Indy and OKC in the Christmas Day package next season as well; neither team was among the 10 picked for that this season, which was probably a mild disappointment for the Pacers and was a huge disappointment for the Thunder.

“I’d love to play on Christmas Day,” Gilgeous-Alexander said earlier this season. “And I think we’re that caliber of team. The NBA makes their decisions. Can’t slight them for it. Ball’s in our court to prove to them why we deserve to be in that game.”

It can easily be argued that both teams did it right: didn’t overspend, didn’t go into the luxury tax — it’s the first finals between two non-taxpayer teams in about two decades — and tried to build around young stars.

And the Thunder and Pacers were teams that combined to win 49 games just three seasons ago; their success now has to be a reason for hope for teams like Utah, Washington, Portland, Charlotte and others that have been sputtering. Turnarounds can happen, and they can be rewarded. Some people will watch, some won’t, but true fans probably are expecting a pretty good series.

“I think that’s exciting,” Haliburton said, “for any basketball fan.”

LOS ANGELES, United States: Manny Pacquiao on Tuesday shrugged off concerns about his decision to return to boxing at the age of 46 as he prepares for next month’s world welterweight title comeback against Mario Barrios.
The charismatic Filipino boxing icon stunned the sports world last month after announcing he would take on World Boxing Council (WBC) champion Barrios on July 19 in Las Vegas, four years after his last fight ended in a disappointing defeat.
Pacquiao, who won 12 world titles in eight different weight classes during a glittering professional career that began in 1995, told reporters on Tuesday that the glamor of championship boxing had prompted his return.
“I’m returning because I miss my boxing,” Pacquiao said at a press conference in Los Angeles. “Especially these situations — being interviewed, press conference, training camp, everything like that.
“I missed that. But it has been good for me — I’ve rested my body for four years. And now I come back.”
Pacquiao said that he had been left devastated following his decision to retire in the wake of his loss to Yordenis Ugas in 2021.
“I always thought, even when I hung up my gloves, ‘I can still fight, I can still feel my body, I can still work hard,’” Pacquiao said.
“That moment when I announced hanging up my gloves four years ago — I was so sad. I was crying, I cannot stop the tears coming out my eyes.”
Pacquiao, though, revealed that working out at his home in the Philippines persuaded him he still had the fitness and strength to fight.
“I realized when I’m playing basketball, training at the gym my house — I have complete sport facilities in my house — that I still have that passion. I still have that speed and power,” he said.
Some in boxing have expressed concerns about whether Pacquiao’s comeback against Barrios, who is 16 years his junior, represents a risk to the Filipino’s safety.
Addressing those concerns, Pacquiao noted that his family and loved ones were firmly behind his comeback.
“I’m thankful for them for their concern,” Pacquiao told AFP. “But the people who really concern me, is my family. My family saw how I move, saw how I train, saw my my body condition. They support me because they can see the old Pacquiao style.”
Pacquiao, who has reunited with veteran trainer Freddie Roach for next month’s fight, is able to challenge immediately for a title due to a WBC rule that allows former champions to request a title fight when coming out of retirement.
WBC President Mauricio Sulaiman told AFP on Tuesday that Pacquiao had been cleared to return to the ring by the Nevada Athletic Commission after undergoing medical exams, describing the fighter’s comeback as “low risk.”
“Manny Pacquiao is at no higher risk than any fighter going into the ring,” Sulaiman said. “Manny has rested his body for four years. He’s not a drinker. He’s not a drug user. He’s a family man that has taken care of himself. So of the different aspects of dangers, he’s at the lowest risk.”
Pacquiao’s opponent, Barrios, said he would set aside the Filipino’s status as one of the most beloved fighters of his era.
“There’s nothing but good things to say about him outside the ring,” Barrios said of Pacquiao. “He’s a hard guy to dislike. But at the end of the day, you know it’s kill or be killed.
“And I know if at any point he has me hurt, you know he’s going to get me out of there. So I just have to go in there and make sure that my hand is raised at the end of the fight.”