[Senator Clay Davis]

Thats the thing. Stern doesn't care about them winning the Finals, he cares about who's playing in the Finals. Once a desired team (Lakers, Heat, Bulls, Celtics, Knicks) makes the Finals, a high rating is essentially assured. He manipulates the results to get the matchup that will maximize viewership, but as to the Finals, I think his only preferrence is it goes 7 games, but once they have a team or teams they want, the league office is content. The Lakers in 04 being a perfect example, the NBA wants them in the Finals, but could care less if they win because they have the rating locked in. In fact Dallas winning last year likely helped make this Finals an even bigger ratings success.