In person attendance for NBA games is essentially a rounding error when compared to TV viewership. We're talking 20K vs ~1.5 million for TV, for a big game featuring a premiere team like the Denver Nuggets.
Iowa women's basketball also does 1.5 million TV viewers for a normal game, and crosses 9 million for a big game.
And women's basketball viewership is growing faster than men's basketball.
So I'm not complaining! Viewers equals dollars. Got it. I just want to know the rules.