NBA.com 'Shatters' Traffic Records in March - FanHouse - AOL Sports Blog

If you believe all the chatter that the NBA is not relevant or it's an entirely "niche sport", then you would probably be surprised to learn that for the second consecutive month, NBA.com broke its own record for monthly page views. Of course, that probably has nothing to do with one of the most exciting basketball seasons in recent memory; surely it's just a bunch of NBA diehards refreshing all day every day to prove that the L can compete on a level with the other major sports.

During March 2008, NBA.com set the all-time monthly traffic record to the site with more than 191 million visits, breaking the previous record of 172 million visits set in February, 2008. NBA.com has established new all-time monthly traffic records in three of five months this season (November, February and March).

Yeeaaaaaah ... or maybe there aren't 191 million niche readers on the internet. You have to look no further than Pau Gasol checking in with the fourth most viewed individual player page on the season, or Shaquille O'Neal currently at fifth. These two gentlemen represent the beginning of the Western Arms Race (unless you want to trace it back to Kevin Garnett, coming in at sixth). Shaq is popular, sure, but if he's "hurt" in Miami, there's no way that he's getting more page views than say ... Dwyane Wade, who checked in at 10th. The same could be said for Gasol in Memphis.

Of course, there's another small (and maybe more depressing) side to the statistics: the Lakers, Suns and Celtics are the top three teams in terms of page views on the year (~50, 33.9 and 33.2 million page views, respectively). You will not find the San Antonio Spurs on the top 10 list of most viewed teams. The Cavs are there because of LeBron James, of course, and currently rank fifth. The Heat are inexplicably fourth, although it's understandable that they may have picked up a sizable lead early in the season.

My point is that the NBA needs Lakers-Celtics or Suns-Celtics. I wouldn't personally be opposed either, the former would be a pretty epic clash. Although I don't think that another Spurs - Cavs Finals will crush the sport either. But that doesn't mean you can't glean who David Stern is pulling for from this list.