the comparisons to other leagues in the article are good examples (and it is OutKick, which obviously has an agenda here). The World Series had the two biggest teams with the sport's two biggest stars. Of course it was going to do well with ratings. Fighting and football are both once-a-week things. They aren't the same type of product as the NBA. The WNBA surge is clearly a Caitlin Clark thing.

I'd be more interested in knowing how the regular season national TV NBA ratings changes compare to the regular season MLB national TV games (I'd throw the NHL in there, but their recent TV deal completely changed the NHL's accessibility, so I don't think it would be a good comparison).

I'd consider myself a pretty big NBA fan, but I watch very little regular season NBA that doesn't involve the Jazz. They have a ratings problem. But I don't think it's as easy as "people watched the Aaron Judge Yankees take on the Shohei Ohtani Dodgers, so you can't say people are watching less TV!"