NBA Finals don't get much more small-market than this. 

But don't tell that to Oklahoma City Mayor David Holt. He doesn't want to hear it. 

The NBA Finals tip off Thursday (8:30 p.m. ET, ESPN) with the Oklahoma City Thunder hosting the Indiana Pacers. The basketball between a pair of high-octane teams with contrasting styles promises to be exciting. 

But much has been made on the internet about the absence of a big-city presence in a Finals that doesn't feature New York, Los Angeles, Toronto or Chicago or even a mid-sized market like Miami or Denver. 

Oklahoma City and Indianapolis are small markets by any measure when it comes to to professional sports and TV eyeballs, which is what the discussion here is about. But Holt has a different perspective.

"There are 19,500 cities, towns and villages in America, and we’re bigger than all but 19 of them,” Holt said recently, per Sports Business Journal. “OK? You think we’re a small market? Well, there’s 19,480 cities who think we’re a big market."

Holt then engaged in a bit of middle-America vs. coastal elite culture warring while standing up for his city.

"Ninety percent of Americans live in a smaller place than Oklahoma City," Holt continued. "They’re not looking at this and going, ‘You know what — that city’s not big enough for me to care.’ That’s a New York media-centric narrative. We’re the big city to most Americans.”

Holt's math is a little off. A lot off, actually. The majority of Americans live in those big cities and their surrounding metropolitan areas. That's the nature of big cities being, well, big. Cities are where large groups of people live.

ASSOCIATED PRESS

But Holt also addresses a discussion that's come up around these Finals. There's been a significant amount of chatter around a perceived lack of interest in these NBA Finals because the cities the teams represent are relatively small compared to their NBA counterparts. Should it really matter?

There are many ways to count population and rank cities in terms of size. By a measure noted here citing TV market size — which is the most relevant issue in play here — Indianapolis ranks 22nd out of 28 markets that host NBA teams. Oklahoma city is 26th. Only New Orleans and Memphis are smaller. 

But the big question here, is why should that matter to basketball fans? It's almost certain that an NBA Finals featuring New York or Los Angeles would generate more eyeballs and, therefore, more revenue. But that's an issue for the network and league accountants to worry about. 

This is what the NBA says that it wants

Having small markets compete is the stated goal of the NBA. Commissioner Adam Silver addressed the subject in his news conference Thursday night prior to Game 1. 

He referenced an effort initiated by late NBA commissioner David Stern and executed in subsequent collective bargaining agreements to level the playing field for teams across the league, regardless of market size. 

"I think it was very intentional,” Silver said. … "We set out to create a system that allowed for more competition around the league with the goal being to have 30 teams all in the position — if well managed — to compete for championships. And that’s what we’re seeing here."

For fans of basketball, the Thunder and Pacers are a product of those efforts and give them plenty of reasons to tune in. They'll also provide Oklahoma City and Indianapolis a chance to show what they've got. 

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