| Association Overhaul Bob Loblaw |
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With the NBA season ending and the madness of 40 days and 40 nights of NBA playoff games beginning (find me someone you know that watches the NBA
playoffs with the same fervor as the NCAA tournament and Clark will get you a free T-shirt), it seems an appropriate time to reflect on another year where I did
not once watch an entire pro basketball game from start to finish. Maybe it was because our hometown team was unusually awful and missed making the
playoffs in the worst conference in pro sports history (at least the bottom teams). Maybe it was the lack of excitement, the never-ending foul calls, or the
search for Michael Jordan has dried up. In any event, I tend to think of myself as a fairly avid sports watcher who is always paying attention most days as to
what is going on in sports and even though I don’t watch NBA games I still have a general idea of who is doing well and who is not. Therefore I think the NBA
needs to find a way to get us sports fans interested again. There is a young talent base comparable to the years of my youth with Jordan, Malone, Magic, Bird,
Barkley, Isaiah (yes he once played and was good at basketball, as unbelievable as that sounds), Reggie, etc etc. That made those days exciting. Today we
have Lebron, Carmelo, Kobe, Garnett, Agent Zero, Nash, Dwade, Tpark, Dirk, and many others I am forgetting since I don’t watch much, who can bring crowds,
excite fans, and get even Skip Bayless to smile. Besides avoiding any more Refs gambling on games there are 2 things the Association can do to add a spark to
pro basketball and bring America back to the days when we all used to recite the line, “NBA Basketball, gotta love it!” Or did we?
The first order of business is to vanquish the current playoff system. 7 game series in each round drag on and on, especially when there are 3 days
between games, killing momentum and interest. The genius of trying to make sure 2 games never coincide so they are all on national TV one at a time, has led
to boredom and makes the playoffs last forever. It is entertaining though to watch the countless times that the better team rolls at home to go up 2-0, then
after a 3 day layoff lose a close one to the weaker team on the road, and the experts spend hours talking up how the underdog is “back in it” and this one
“could go the distance” only to have them lose in 5 like we all predicted. Trying to manufacture hype does not work; true hype comes from true interest, never
better illustrated than by the NCAA tournament. Everyone fills out a bracket, picks the games, then pays attention and watches, if nothing else to see how
their picks do, even if they aren’t a huge hoops fan. The NBA does not draw that crowd. So here’s how they can:
Scrap the current East-West system-seed the top 16 records 1-16 without worrying about conferences so the top teams are the top seeds. Bracket the
games just like the NCAA’s, 1 vs. 16, 2 vs. 15 etc, and play best of 3 (home, away, home*) in the first round, best of 5 in the second (home, home, away,
away*, home*) with home court obviously going to the higher seed in each round. Schedule the games so they all go on the same nights of the week like the
NCAA, and play 2 at a time, one game on ESPN and one on TNT so we can get that channel flipping remote feel back and forth. Then for the Final 4 play best of
7 on each side, with the games alternating one series one night and one series the other night so they are on constantly like the baseball playoffs. This way
even the lesser teams get at least one home playoff game to reward their fans, but the teams that played the best all year have the advantage. Everyone
loves the upsets but it always best when the top teams make the finals, like the college final 4 this year. The drama will build and people can fill out their
brackets, pick the games, and watch more than once in a while. Pros are supposed to be better than college, so shouldn’t their playoff system at least be
comparable?
The second idea is not one I came up with. An economic expert I know planted this idea in my head, and he shall remain nameless. Basically NBA ticket
prices should be tied to a team’s success on the court. The best record last year, gets to charge the most per seat, and the worst team can only charge the
least. This would give owners and GM’s incentive to put a winner on the floor so they could make more money. It would also help draw fans to a more
affordable game that probably would not attend because their hometown team is bad. The price could be based on the record the year before with a small
bump for making the playoffs (it would probably be best to just go by record and not playoff results as those vary). Then at the All Star break a team that is
doing better than the year before can raise the rates for the rest of season if they want, or leave them as they are. You could even go further and tie this into
beer, food etc prices as the worse your team is, the more your fans should get to drink for the same price. Owners would want to win to make more money,
push GM’s and coaches to win and sign better players, and in most cases if the team is winning, the fans will continue to come when the price goes up to see
their winners play. Next year Boston and LA would start out at the highest price point, and Miami and New York would be at the bottom, only by improving their
team, could they raise prices and revenue. They would be more likely to draft a proven player who could help right away and stop wasting time, hope, and
money on the project rookies many of whom never fulfill their promise. The arenas are usually half full anyway and most of the money comes from the TV
contracts, so it’s not like they couldn’t make payroll with the price cut, and it would endear the teams to the fans, unless their players were to go up into the
stands and beat them up, but that never happens, right? Who will be the first franchise to have its loyal fans root against it so they lose and the tickets are
cheaper next year will be the interesting issue. Once this article reaches David Stern’s office I assume we will all see the flashing “Breaking News” ticker pop up
on ESPNNEWS with the details of this overhaul, then listen to the breakdown of what it means, just wait.
*-If necessary, I always like how they include this in every playoff schedule as if those us who watch sports, where almost every game or match involves some form of counting to
determine winning and losing, need an asterisk to tell us that in a 7 game series if team A wins the first 4, they will not play game 5, 6, or 7. I guess someone somewhere would
go out and buy tickets for those games if they weren’t marked?