Trendlines: NBA playoff ticket prices are out of control

Welcome to Trendlines, your weekly installment of what’s trending up and what’s trending down in sports.

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This week we’re talking about the NBA playoffs, which are hot, hot, hot in the city that I am currently in (New York).

The New York Knickerbockers (or Knicks) are up 2-0 on their rival Boston Celtics in the Eastern Conference semifinals.

Can the Knicks go all the way? I don’t know, but what I do know is tickets to Game 3 of their series against the Celtics are some of the hottest items in town.

That’s where we start with trending up.

The cheapest ticket right now on Vivid Seats is about $600. Last week, it was under $400. That’s an increase of somewhere between 70% and 80%, depending on what time you check the website.

I don’t know who has that much money to spend on a seat, though it speaks to the fact that ticket prices are out of control.

The last time the Knicks were this good (the mid 1990s) you could get a face value playoff seat in the semifinals for $25. Even if you take inflation into account and that tickets were 10 times as high on the secondary market, such a seat would still be less than what a playoff ticket is going for now.

Who can afford this stuff?

The last time the Knicks were this good, ticket prices were much cheaper. - Nathaniel S. Butler/NBAE via Getty Images — The last time the Knicks were this good, ticket prices were much cheaper. – Nathaniel S. Butler/NBAE via Getty Images

I will admit that I’m not the most ardent NBA fan, hence my references to mid-90s basketball. I didn’t quite realize how often the Celtics would be attempting and missing three-pointers this series.

Indeed, the whole league is attempting more and more three-pointers. The average team is now attempting a little less than 38 three-pointers per game. When I was a kid, it was slightly less than 10.

I don’t know if I like the new style of play. I guess it works for some teams and doesn’t work for others.

It hasn’t been working for the Celtics who have been a combined 25-for-100 (yes they’re averaging 50 attempts a game) in this series.

Did somebody say brick?

The Celtics may be missing, but John Tesh’s basketball anthem does not. The famous theme song for NBC is coming back next season as NBC has regained NBA television rights.

Apparently, a lot of people are, like myself, looking forward to that theme song. Google searches for “Roundball Rock” are averaging more this month than any month on record.

I guess I can say I’m not too surprised? Tesh’s live performance of the song has nearly three million views on YouTube.

But more than anything else, the theme song is full of nostalgia. The NBA has never had more viewers than it did in the 1990s, when “Roundball Rock” was the league’s anthem for viewers.

The NBA will probably never be that popular again, though maybe the theme can bring them some good mojo.

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