Pro basketball fans can’t really ask for much more than the 2011 Finals.

Over the first five games, Dallas and Miami have played four tight ones, three claimed by three points or less, including a duo decided by last-second shots by Dirk Nowitzki: a left-hand drive that fell for Mavs in Game 2 and a missed turnaround line jumper that gave Game 3 to the Heat. The 7-foot German also overcame 102-degree fever and converted the biggest shot — a right-side drive — of the fourth affair.

For their parts, ABC, ESPN and NBA officials have to be ecstatic over the Nielsens, which are stacking up quite well with last year and the 2004 championship series.

Mark (Email Silent) Cuban’s Mavericks, behind a stellar finish by Dirk and Jason Terry, ran past Dwayne Wade and the fourth-quarter faux King, LeBron James, Chris Bosh and the rest of the Heat, leaving their fans at American Airlines Center with a parting gift of a 3-2 series lead, which they’ll take to South Beach on Sunday night.

Terry was on the runway with Dirk as they outdueled D-Wade and the scoring-challenged LeCon down the stretch of Game 5. ABC netted 18.3 million viewers, including a 7.7 rating with persons 18 to 34, a 7.4 among persons 18 to 49 and a 7.6 against adults 25 to 54, with its coverage of Dallas’ stirring 112-103 victory. Those deliveries netted the Alphabet a 24th consecutive nightly win with the NBA Finals over the years.

ABC’s June 9 telecast of Game 5, like Game 4 before it, was the top Finals finisher among persons 18 to 34 and 18 to 49 since the Los Angeles Lakers-Detroit Pistons battle in 2004. It should be noted the Pistons clinched their third franchise championship in the former contest, before 21.8 million total viewers. Thursday’s Game 5 was ABC’s second-highest-ever non-series-clinching game during its nine years of broadcasting The Finals.

Based on five-game averages, the 2011 NBA Finals continues to outperform the 2010 Lakers-Boston Celtics matchup among persons 18 to 49 (6.6 vs. 6.5) and adults 18 to 34 (6.8 vs. 6.6), posting up seven-year bests since 2004. Through the first five games, the 2010 series averaged 16.2 million viewers and a 9.6 rating, while this year’s matchup has generated almost 16.1 million, easily surpassing the 12.9 million average for the six-game 2006 Finals and a 9.5 mark.

Still, Game 5 of Mavs-Heat fell some 400,000 short of the 18.7 million for the corresponding contest between the Lakers-Celtics last year, but scored 4 million more than Game 5 of the Mavs-Heat circa 2006, which averaged 14.3 million.

As Miami looks to stave off elimination and Dirk, Terry and  fellow veterans JKidd and Shawn Marion try to don their first-ever crown on Sunday night, ABC hopes to outpoint the 18 million who watched Game 6 of Lakers-Celtics last year. That game — a 22-point Lakers’ blowout after Kendrick Perkins injured his knee — saw its audience fall from the 18.7 million for Game 5 of that series.

Maybe if LeBron can manage to get to the rack in the fourth quarter — he has just 11 points in the final stanzas of the first five contests — Miami might defend its home court. A Game 7 victory and series MVP laurels would steel Dirk’s legacy or further D-Wade’s — he won the honor in 2006. Moreover, a decisive game would likely blow up with the Nielsens on Tuesday night: 28.2 million saw the Lakers repeat last year.

If the series reaches its ultimate stage, it would be better if the Heat were to go cold, that way the NBA and its TV partners could ride another Miami and James championship chase next season — if and when that campaign tips off.

The Miami-Dallas 2011 NBA Finals shapes up about as well as ABC could have hoped for, short of another rematch of pro hoops ultimate rivals.

When Kobe, Phil Jackson and the two-time defending champion Los Angeles Lakers’ bid for a three-peat was swept away by Dirk Nowitzki and crew, and LeBron, DWade and Chris Bosh put an end to the Boston Celtics’ Big 4 in five, the Mavs-Heat was the matchup of choice.

No disrespect intended here to Chicago Bulls backers and Nielsen DMA No. 3, but the Heat showed that MVP Derrick Rose was not quite ready for pro hoops’ primetime presentation, at least until he gets a little bit more support on the offensive end. Clutch play by Miami’s Big 3 combined with a spate of turnovers and embarrassingly inept possessions doomed the Bulls in the fourth quarters of their four losses. TNT officials can only lament how much higher its record Nielsens would have climbed with the Eastern Conference finals had the Bulls not performed as self-picadors, especially in the Game 5 meltdown.

Out West, two-time league scoring champion Kevin Durant, Russell Westbrook, James Harden and coach Scott Brooks experienced their own growing pains, coughing up what would have been Game 4-series tying win, by only scoring 10 points over the last five minutes of regulation and overtime, as Dirk went off, and JKidd and Jason Terry administered their own levels of torment to their younger opponents.

If championship pedigree is often a matter of progression — think Isiah’s Pistons finally getting past Bird’s Celtics and Jordan’s Bulls finally breaking the rules and topping Detroit’s Bad Boys — there are more dues to be paid by the Bulls and OKC, whose market position No. 45 could prove problematic if the club emerges as a perennial contender.

Instead, basketball fans, ABC/ESPN and David Stern have DMA No. 5 and its group of aging veterans, Dirk, Kidd, Terry and Peja, versus DMA No. 16 and the Heatles, whom many Americans have decided to either love or loathe since pooling their talents in South Beach.

So how much ratings heat can Miami-Dallas bring? The team’s 2006 championship contretemps - only Dirk and Terry remain for Big D, while Wade and Udonis Haslem still represent for the Heat - averaged 12.9 million over six games. Given the quality of the matchup and the record-setting ratings’ performance of the regular and postseason thus far - not to mention the looming labor situation that could make this the last bit of pro ball anyone’s going to see for a while - one would think that fans will be engaged for the ultimate roundball revue. That mark should fall handily — unless, of course, it’s a blowout.

To bring in more casual viewers, though, the Mavs have to take one of two at American Airlines Arena, before returning to American Airlines Center and the home cooking of Mark Cuban, for the third through fifth contests. Should the Finals reach six games, this version of Miami-Dallas could surpass the 14.3 million for Lakers-Orlando in 2009 (five games) and maybe even the 14.9 million for Lakers-Celtics in 2008 (six).

Still, Miami-Dallas is going to fall well short of the 2010 Finals. For the record, last season’s seven-game battle between LA and Boston averaged 18.1 million watchers for ABC, the most since the Kobe-Shaq Lakers topped Allen Iverson, Dikembe Mutombo and Brian Roberts’ Philadelphia 76ers and NBC netted just under 19 million watchers over five contests in 2001. When it comes to hoops and other things, people love LA.

Finals’ Nielsen tallying aside, the outcome of this year’s title tilt will remove either LeBron or Dirk from the roster of the other NBA MVPs never to have won a title: Iverson, Rose, Steve Nash, Charles Barkley and Karl Malone.

Enjoy!

Jacques Rogge can’t be joyous.

The president of the International Olympics Committee will entertain U.S. rights bidders for the 2014 and 2016 Games in Lausanne, Switzerland on June 6-7. But the Comcast/NBC Universal contingent will not include the American Olympics champion, Dick Ebersol.

The acclaimed producer and a member of the Olympic Order, bestowed by the IOC for his contributions to the Olympic Movement, resigned as chairman of the NBC Sports Group on May 18 after he could not reach a contract extension with his new boss at NBC Universal Steve Burke. The split comes just three months after Comcast officially gained control of programmer and just weeks before the rights auction. Although Comcast CEO Brian Roberts, Mark Lazarus, Ebersol’s successor at NBC Sports Group, and others will be making the Swiss trip, the man who turned the Peacock into “America’s Olympic Network,” won’t be on the flight.

Rogge told the Associated Press that he spoke with Roberts, Burke and NBC Olympics president Gary Zenkel via phone after news of Ebersol’s resignation. “The three reiterated the full support of NBC/Comcast for the Olympic movement and the Olympic Games,” Rogge said. “They said they would come for the bidding. They made it very clear that the resignation of Dick had absolutely nothing to do with the bidding. They have reiterated that they were very committed to participating in full at the bidding.”

Saying and actually playing can be two different things. In April, NBC and Versus combined on a $2 billion, 10-year rights deal with the NHL. However earlier this month, the pair’s reported $225 million annual bid for Pac-12 rights was outflanked by a combined $3 billion, 12-year gambit from ESPN and Fox. One could argue that $2 billion-plus outlay needs to find a home.

Roberts’ No. 2 Burke, now heading the Comcast-controlled joint venture, speaking on the company’s first-quarter earnings call with analysts, discussed a disciplined approach to spending on big-time sports, emphasizing “NPVs,” not gold, silver or bronze.

“There will be instances where we get deals and renew deals as was the case recently with hockey,” Burke said of the recent renewal of NHL games for its Versus cable channel. “There will be instances where we go as far as we feel we should go and someone else get the rights, which appears to be the case with the Pac 12. As it relates to the Olympics or the NFL, we think those are two fantastic properties and would love to have them, but would like to make money. There are a variety of ways you can make money — advertising or investing in a cable channel that would allow you to have increased advertising or increased affiliate fees. We’re not going to do anything that doesn’t have a business plan that pencils out to a positive NPV [Net Present Value].”

But with ESPN and Fox also having expressed interest in gaining the rights to the Winter Games in Socchi, Russia in 2014 and the Summer Games in 2016, the IOC is eyeing at least the $2.2 billion NBC paid for the rights to the Vancouver Winter Games in 2010 and the upcoming Summer quadrennial in London next year. That total included a $200 million TOP sponsorship from General Electric.

There has also been talk about a package that could also encompass the 2018 and 2020 Games, the host cities to which have not yet been determined. Such a quad play harkens back to 1995, when Ebersol and NBC that August scored the rithe 2000 Summer Games in Sydney and the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City, which marked the first time consecutive rights to the quadrennial sporting events were awarded simultaneously. Later that year, he executed a triplecast, er triple play, gaining exclusive media rights for the 2004, 2006 and 2008 Games, making NBC the first network to present five Olympics in a row, a skein that will reach seven in London.

Will Comcast open its wallet during this high-stakes game of poker for the Games, especially without their foremost U.S. advocate playing the hand? Does Comcast lose its inherited incumbent’s edge sans Ebersol? Will Ebersol rival, Fox Sports chairman David Hill, gain the Games for News Corp. boss Rupert Murdoch and further stoke FX’s reentry into the sports game? Does any of this really matter, if ESPN elects to unload its vast financial arsenal? It’s one steeled by subscriber fees exceeding $4.50 per month and perhaps topped by a TOP sponsorship that could festoon Mickey Mouse, Buzz Lightyear and Lightning McQueen in Rings gear around the globe.

On first blush, Ebersol’s absence –he’s actually sticking around until the end of June — would seem to put NBCU at a disadvantage in Switzerland. But Comcast, with enough green, could earn Games gold that could be a nice win ahead of NBCU’s first primetime schedule, which is being fortified by an additional $200 million in program spending, under Burke’s watch.

A Games get would be big and coupled with a resolution to the NFL labor situation, Super Bowl XLVI in Indianapolis will give NBC the most-watched show of 2012 — and perhaps all-time — provided pro pigskin fans prove to be a forgiving lot. Those could be nice trophies if NBC Entertainment chairman Bob Greenblatt’s slate — Burke himself said on the aforementioned conference call the primetime turnaround could take a few years — fails to make any progress from the Peacock’s fourth-place entrenchment.

The deplorable violence in Vancouver aside, Canadians once again proved their love for the puck sport with the CBC setting myriad viewership records with its coverage of the 2011 Stanley Cup Final.

Stateside, the ratings were better than expected as well, fueled by a big run-up for Boston’s Game 7 blanking that denied the Nielsen-unfriendly Canucks their first Cup ever and returned the Lord Stanley trophy to Beantown for the first time since Bobby Orr skated with the 35-pound piece of hardware in 1972.

North of the border, the CBC averaged 8.76 million watchers on June 15 with the Canucks’ 4-0 Game 7 loss — its best ever score for an NHL contest and second overall behind the 8.96 million for the 2002 Olympic men’s gold medal game in Salt Lake City when Canada topped the U.S.

Adding in the 1.04 million on French-language network RDS and NBC’s 8.54 million for NBC, 2011’s ultimate skate-off netted an average of 18.3 million watchers, the most ever in North America, according to the NHL.

For those keeping score at home, Canada counted 13.6 million TV households during the 2010-11 TV season, versus 115.9 million in the U.S., so America has the potential for just a bit of a home ice advantage.

Buoyed by the Game 7 delivery — which represented a 148% jump over the 3.53 million for Pittsburgh-Detroit in 2009, the last Stanley Cup Final series to go the distance — CBC averaged a best-ever 6.15 million viewers for the Bruins-Canucks campaign. That marked a 98% jump over the 3.1 million for the six-game Chicago-Philly clash in 2010 and a 186% surge for the Penguins’ championship run over the Red Wings, which played before 2.15 million on average.

Back in the U.S., the Peacock garnered 8.54 million watchers with its Game 7 coverage - the largest audience since NBC’s 9.41 million for Game 6 of Montreal-Chicago way back on May 10, 1973 (see top 10 list  below)!

The June 15 telecast also ticked past the 8.28 million for Chicago’s first Cup clincher since 1961 on June 9, 2010 over the Flyers. That helped boost NBC’s five-game average audience to 5.31 million, the best for a network Stanley Cup Final featuring a Canadian team in 38 years — 7.4 million for three games in 1973 on NBC. Nevertheless, it was 13.2% below the 6.1 million NBC averaged for four Stanley Cup Final contests last year.

Factoring Versus’ Cup coverage into the mix - the cable network presented Games 3 and 4, averaging 2.7 million, down 19.9% from 3.37 million in 2010 - the corporate teammates collected 4.6 million viewers, an 11% decline from 5.17 million last year.

Despite the seven games, networks on both sides of the border no doubt had their viewership scores hampered by Boston’s quartet of wins — a combined 21-3 thrashing. Until Conn Smythe winner Tim Thomas made sure the Cup was coming back to Beantown, the Canucks were making like the 1960 Pittsburgh Pirates against the New York Yankees.

Still, Bruins-Canucks crushed the 3.3 million watchers for ABC and ESPN’s coverage of the 2004 series between Tampa Bay and Calgary by 39% in becoming the most-watched combined network/cable Stanley Cup Final involving a team from north of the border. Moreover, it dwarfed the last clash of this kind: the 2007 series matching Ottawa and Anaheim, which averaged 1.76 million watchers on NBC/Versus by 161%.

In the final year of its current deal with the NHL, Versus skated before the second most-watched postseason on cable in nine years, trailing only its 2010 playoff performance.

That delivery should grow higher with the 2012 playoffs, when Versus, or whatever its new moniker will bear, gains second-round exclusivity at the expense of the regional sports networks. Hence, during the first year of NBC/Versus’ new 10-year, $2 billion rights deal with the NHL,  the Comcast linemates will establish a new Nielsen benchmark to gauge the balance of their contract.

MOST-WATCHED STANLEY CUP FINAL GAMES IN U.S. (1966-2011):

1. 5/18/71, Montreal-Chicago - Game 7, 12.41 million, CBS

2. 5/11/72, Boston-NY Rangers - Game 6, 10.93 million, CBS

3. 5/10/73, Montreal-Chicago - Game 6, 9.41 million, NBC

4. 6/15/11, Boston-Vancouver - Game 7, 8.54 million, NBC

5. 4/30/72, NY Rangers-Boston - Game 1, 8.51 million, CBS

6. 5/12/74, Boston-Philadelphia - Game 3, 8.30 million, NBC

7. 6/9/10, Chicago-Philadelphia - Game 6, 8.28 million, NBC

8. 5/7/72, Boston-NY Rangers - Game 4, 8.26 million, CBS

9. 6/12/09, Pittsburgh-Detroit - Game 7, 7.99 million, NBC

10. 5/19/74, Boston-Philadelphia - Game 6, 7.85 million, NBC

Source: Nielsen and NBC

NFL Network is celebrating one of its own, NFL Films founder Ed Sabol.

Premiering Monday at 8 p.m., Ed Sabol, King of Football Movies screens just five days before the man, now 94, is inducted into the Pro Football of Fame.

Long before the proliferation of 24/7 sports talk radio, ESPN’s constant NFL rumination and promotion and the kickoff of NFL Network, it was NFL Films with its low-angle, slow-motion artistry that hooked countless fans on the drama and violence of the game. Many credit Sabol and his son Steve, now president of NFL Films and their company, with pushing Sundays to the forefront of American sports fanaticism and culture.

Even with the defining moment of the Baltimore Colts’ overtime win over the New York Giants at Yankee Stadium in the 1958 NFL title game, pro football still ranked third behind college football and baseball among the nation’s sports tastes in the early 1960s. It traded up quickly with the help of Sabol.

This tale tracks the evolution of Big Ed– a man with comedic leanings and a short-lived career on Broadway in the “K-mart version of the Marx Brothers” — from the son-in-law of an overcoat manufacturer to the film mogul of NFL. It looks at a man with an out-sized ego and talent playing among out-sized men and how he transformed his home movie hobby and filming of Steve’s football contests and practices at the Haverford School into a struggling business named after his daughter, Blair Motion Pictures.

This film also focuses on the prices Sabol had to pay to gain entry to the NFL playing fields, and how he was able to convince Pete Rozelle, the late commissioner, whose various calls elevated the game from its minor league roots, to greenlight NFL Films. It zooms in on They Call If Pro Football, “the Citizen Kane” of the genre, which  came to serve as marketing model for the NFL.

King of Football Movies also enjoyably traces Sabol’s sales pitch to the NFL’s  “John Wayne,” one Vince Lombardi, and the manipulation that led to micless matriculation of Kansas City Chiefs coach Hank Stramm during Super Bowl IV.

It also pays due respect to the signature NFL Films shot, the single frame trained on a passed pigskin spiraling toward an unseen target. Sam Spence, a specialist in Hollywood-style soundtracks echoing military films, and the “voice of God,” belonging to Philadelphia newscaster, John Facenda, are also hailed for their primary roles in the ascendancy of NFL Films. As Sabol says: “John Facenda could read a laundry list and make it sound like the Constitution of the United States.”

Finally, there are fun and emotional segments with Steve, as an adoring and appreciative son, and his relationship with his best friend, Big Ed.

Ed Sabol, King of Pro Football Movies, is a fast and fun watch, paying credit to a man and his mission that certainly merit enshrinement in Canton. What can’t be fun, though, are the reports about current business game plans at NFL Films.