Fixing the NBA the European Way

Since the World Championships, much has been written about the problems with the NBA. One popular perception is the length of the season which creates meaningless games, either at the beginning of the season or once teams are eliminated from the play-offs and begin sand-bagging to join the Greg Oden Derby.

While watching Man. U play Celtic last night in a Champions League football (er, soccer) match, I devised a plan to fix the NBA.

1) Get rid of the play-offs.
2) Crown a regular season champion.
3) Shorten the season so each team plays every other team home and away (58 games)

Not exactly a novel idea. And, of course it is impractical, as the NBA needs the extra games for ticket revenue and television money. However, to make the league more exciting and to elevate the intensity each and every game, a shortened season makes sense. One early season loss could ultimately determine the champion, because there is no play-off for a team to make up for a sub-par record.

Going into the 2006-07 season, some teams will inevitably be in the play-offs: San Antonio, Miami, Phoenix, Detroit, Chicago, Dallas, etc. These teams would have to suffer one or more season-ending injuries to miss the play-offs. So, in the regular season, they play solely for home court advantage. And, because of the length of the season, they secure a spot in the play-offs with many games left to be played, leaving time to rest stars for the play-offs. The shortened season would create a fight to the finish line for these top teams; no games off, no relaxing, as every game counts. And, rather than ignoring the regular season champ (who had the best record last season?), the regular season champion would be celebrated, which is appropriate because they managed to outlast the opposition over 58 games, quite a feat.

Now, to offset the financial losses due to the loss of games, the second part of the plan.

Crown a Cup Champion.

The Cup Championship would take place during the course of the season. A schedule could be a Tuesday/Thursday regular season schedule (29 weeks or roughly 7 months) with cup games played on the weekend.

I played with a couple ideas for the club championship, but liked the following the best.

1) The top 24 teams from the previous NBA season qualify for the Cup Championship; therefore, even teams struggling through the season with no hope of winning the championship have something to play for: a spot in the Cup Championship the following year. Talk about a financial motivation for teams near the bottom of the standings! Think a team is going to trade away its best player late in the season to save money and acquire a draft pick, but risk finishing in the bottom of the standings and missing out on the Cup competition and extra games the following season? No more tanking the end of the season to acquire a Greg Oden, as the financial losses from missing the cup will be huge (loss of 12 home games versus the current NBA schedule).

2) Create a summer champions league for the top teams from any of minor leagues: ABA, NBDL, CBA, IBL, etc. The top eight franchises get a spot in the Cup Championship. Can you imagine the Boston Celtics playing at the Vermont Frostheaves in a Cup game? What a boon to the minor league system!

Also, this would supply the basketball-deprived with quality summer programming, as ESPN could cover the tournament pitting all minor league franchises against each other in a tournament to reach the professional cup. Minor League basketball suddenly would have life and gain a portion of the American sporting landscape, much as minor league baseball and Arena Football have done in the past few years.

3) 32 teams divided into 8 4-team groups. Each team plays a home and home with the other teams in its group and the top 2 teams from each group advance (6 games).

4) Last 16 teams divide into 4 4-team groups. Each team plays a home and home with the other teams in its group and the top 2 teams advance (6 games).

5) Last eight teams. Play a best 2 out of 3 series with winners advancing to the semi-finals. (3 games).

6) Play the Final Four at a neutral site like the NCAA Final Four. (2 games)

This attempts to make every game meaningful and increase the importance of the regular season; we simply do not give the regular season campion in American sports enough credit. And, we do not punish teams who continually put forth bad teams and a poor effort.

However, it also gives every team (including minor league franchises) an opportunity to win a championship even if it loses a couple league games early in the season and falls behind in the chase for the regular season championship.