The NBA All-Star break is one of the best times in the NBA, not only because of the festivities, but for the rumors and news that comes out. If you didn’t hear, Adam Silver mentioned changing the NBA playoffs format to either the best 16 teams or the best eight teams from both conference but mixing them together for the playoffs. This would be horrible for the actual league and is only in the interest of the NBA, ESPN, and TNT. I’ll explain why and it all starts with the East.
The East is the Friend No One Wants to Hang Out With
This is just a fact, the Eastern Conference is not as good as the Western Conference right now. The East will honestly be even with the West in the next five years, but that is beside the point. In the 80’s and 90’s, the East was actually more dominant with 12 championships compared to the West’s eight titles. The NBA never tried to help the ratings during this time period, because dominance fluctuates.
Change Doesn’t Help Everything
The first sign of the NBA trying to help their “red headed stepchild” was to change the All-Star Game format with captains. Let’s be honest the West would have blown out the East even before injuries. Now obviously the All-Star Game doesn’t matter as much as the playoffs do, but still this shows that the NBA didn’t trust the East, The King, and The Process.
“So What, The Teams Are Still The Same?”
If you say this you are ignorant. A 1-8 seeding and a 1-16 seeding are completely different with multiple factors from the NBA. For one, the schedules of teams are not even at all. This negates the reason for two conferences. Teams aren’t playing each other an equal amount of times so you would have to completely rebalance schedules, Secondly, in a 1-16 seeding, seedings will NOT matter anymore. People are saying a “1-16” would give the best two teams a chance. The best two teams make it each year to the Finals… If you are the best in the West then you make it and same for the East. It is pretty simple. This also takes away classic matchups and rivalries…
The NBA Would Not be Nostalgic Anymore
What I mean by this is that there would not be a guarantee of matchups anymore. You wouldn’t be able to daydream of a classic Celtics vs. Lakers series or a LeBron vs. KD matchup. Hell, we might not get to see how a series between the Warriors and Rockets plays out or even Brodie vs KD. This point is more of a “selfish” point just because nothing would be guaranteed.
My Final Recap
At the end of the day the NBA is a business, but I believe this decision would only benefit the NBA, ESPN, and TNT. They believe this would entice more people into watching, well they could actually get less viewers. Hear me out, let’s say two west coast teams make it to the finals. You would eliminate viewership from the east coast with time differences. There is no way they would start a Finals game at 4 P.M. west coast, so that means east coast viewers would have to stay up late. You also have teams flying longer distances with a 1-16 playoff seeding.
This shows that the NBA doesn’t trust the East after LeBron is gone, either from retirement or moving to the West. My message to the NBA is Trust The Process of the East (except for the 76ers) and let the East and West battle it out.
If you think what I said was wrong debate me @IanRPerSources