No, this isn't about the hula-hoop, frisbee, or slinky. Those bits of simple genius have come and gone. Likewise for cabbage patch dolls, pet rocks, and I haven't heard about the clapper for a while. Maybe all the people that bought the latter somehow managed to clap off their pacemakers and -- well -- stuff happens.
This is about the NBA and a couple of terrific ideas recently put forth by billionaire owners in an attempt to rectify what many perceive to be major flaws in the current way the league is set up. Specifically, the draft/lottery, and the alleged spectre of teams already out of contention "tanking" towards the end of the season to increase their odds of getting a very high draft pick.
Of course, it's almost impossible to prove a team is losing on purpose. Head coaches are definitely free to devise strategies and play anyone on their rosters as they see fit. Yet sometimes hoops fans watching a game are left to scratch their heads and think -- what the hell are they doing?
On that note, it's a safe bet rookie NBA Commish Adam Silver doesn't want this tanking notion to gain much traction -- perceived or otherwise. If evidence mounted that teams under his watch were throwing current games to benefit in the long run, the consequences could be severe. Considering NBA teams routinely travel all over the US, plus across an international border (Toronto), the mere idea that the competition was somehow less than honest might well attract the attention of federal authorities. It's also likely a safe bet the last thing Mr. Silver wants or needs is to be hauled in front of some sort of Congressional oversight committee to be raked over the coals by a bunch of Senators asking probing questions when he can't offer any definitive answers.
Yet real or not, the perception remains amongst many that teams that have nothing to gain by trying hard might well " mail it in" towards the end of a losing season in the hopes of improving their lot in the future. How to fix this? Enter the billionaires.
First up, Sacramento Kings lead owner Vivek Ranadive. Ranadive suggests two major changes.
1) Freeze the order of the draft at the All-Star break. Few would doubt ALL teams play hard for the first half of the season, because hope springs eternal, as they say. Also, tanking towards the end of a season would become irrelevant.
2) Instead of the current top 8 teams in each conference getting playoff berths, cut it back to the top 7, with all the other teams playing an NCAA style one-game knockout tourney for the final playoff spots in their respective conferences. Playing every other day, which is business as usual in the NBA, it could be accomplished in little more than a week. Given barely squeaking into the playoffs guarantees an owner millions in additional revenue from any such series, it goes without saying the owners would demand their teams gave it all they had to get there, or heads might roll.
Second, enter Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban. Cuban is thought of in different ways by different people, but dumb, he is decidedly not.
Cuban offered his own idea on solving the alleged tanking problem. He has long maintained that if a team has one of the three worst records -- they will become ineligible for one of the three top draft picks the following year. That way, they have to at least fight their way to the fourth worst record.
In my humble opinion, these are terrific ideas. Whether Adam Silver and the NBA take them under serious consideration remains to be seen.
But that's probably why Ranadive and Cuban are billionaires and most of us are not. These guys are visionaries. They think of big things in the future on a grand scale, while schmucks like yours truly are still trying to figure out how I woke up a couple mornings ago curled up with the neighbor's dog -- in my own bed. Well OK, maybe I accidentally left the slider slightly ajar the night before, but it still didn't seem right somehow.
Then again, it could have been a lot worse. If you just have to wake up next to a complete stranger -- better a schnauzer than the Commish and that damn oversight committee.
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