If you were the commissioner of the NBA - Dallas-Mavs.com Forums

Hitman · 08-29-2003, 01:36 PM

what would you do? What would be your action plan to bring the NBA back to the forefront of the American sports conciousness?

Here are 3 things I would do immediately.

1. I would have 4 teams from each conference make the playoffs. 'This can't happen,' is what some posters will say. 'There is too much money made in the first round of the playoffs.' That is not a good argument. By having 4 teams make the playoffs, you are losing 1 round of the playoffs, but you are increasing the value of the regular season one hundredfold. One of the top 5 teams in the West is not making the playoffs. Do you realize how much more meaning that gives to the regular season?

Can you imagine the coverage of the games in March and April if the Mavs, Kings, Lakers, Spurs and Wolves were within a couple of games of each other? And only four of them would actually make it? That would mean, as a Mavs fan, that we would need to win a MINIMUM of 55 games this year to make the postseason. That means that, suddenly, the games are ALL IMPORTANT! What a concept?

Can you imagine the importance of the games in November and December for the Suns and the Rockets ( as well as the afforementioned top 5) as they know they need to win at all costs just for a chance to make the postseason?

The regular season would ACTUALLY BE IMPORTANT! That is what the NFL has going for it that the NBA simpy does not. You hear posters talking about "not caring" what the Mavs "regular season" record is. They only care about the playoffs.

Whether that thinking is right in basketball terms is irrevelant. However, when fans think your regular season is irrelevant, than you need to rework your regular season.

2. I would form a partnership with European basketball. I would incorporate those leagues into broacasts. I would put these games on NBA TV, I would talk about the future stars and I would promote them. I would negotiate with the European leagues to have a tournament amongst each other in the Spring to determine a "European champion" and I would have the NBA champion play the European champion following the finals to determine the "true" world champions. This would be a huge ratings draw around the world and would draw new fans year after year. The "World Championship of Basketball". I would also negotiate with leagues in Africa, Asia and Australia, and have them develop their leagues and in the future, have a true "World Championship" every year.

3. I would strike down Mark Cuban's attempt to make contracts invalid during international competition. These competitions are the future of basketball. The Yao Mings, the Dirk Nowitzkis, the Peja Stojakovics, the Emmanuel Ginobolis and the Nenes of the world spend their summer not just playing, but spreading the game of hoops around the world. They should be commended, not threatened, as the long term gain that they are affording the game (not to mention Cuban's wallet) are immeasurable. The gains far outweigh any potential ankle sprain that could keep Dirk out a few games.

Hitman

Nash13 · 08-29-2003, 02:26 PM

If i were the NBA commissioner, I would:

1. Recommend New Jersey Nets and Miami Heat to relocate somewhere like St. Louis/New York.
2. Try not to be the center of attention.
3. Be more discipline with player's suspensions and fines.
4. Not run to Stu Jackson to give players suspensions and fines just so i wouldn't look like the bad guy.

EricaLubarsky · 08-29-2003, 04:02 PM

great topic, hitman. You are an awesome poster! Im really digging this one. I need a little more time to think about this question though

Stressboy · 08-29-2003, 04:51 PM

Hitman,

I think your first suggestion is off base because of two reasons. 1st, the lessor teams would give up faster and thus make most of the games between the 5-10 teams worthless and 2nd, any small to medium injury might not be able to be overcome and the best teams might not make the playoffs (LA last year is an example, though many will argue that they were not the best, they might have been the second best team).

Your other suggestions are good, i would just add that the Euro teams should get minor league affiliations with NBA teams so that picks could be placed overseas to play. The NBA would not be able to pull a player up except at the beginning of the year and if they did the player would get a guaranteed contract. They also could cut the players only after the full year so essentially, they have guaranteed contracts paid by the NBA while in europe.

Now if the Euro leagues would not want to do this, then part of the negotiation with each league would be for an all NBA minor league team to play in each league. So in France they would have a single NBA based team that would be sponsored by 4 of the teams and the same with Spain, Germany, Italy, Greece, ??? whereever it makes sense. Each team could place 2-3 players in Europe to develop, but a limit would have to be set so that the team would not have all PG's for instance.

stressboy

EricaLubarsky · 08-29-2003, 04:52 PM

Here is one idea. We get rid of the MLB crap, and start an NBA post-season schedule that really has the best two teams playing in the finals (not best in East, best in West). We even up all the schedules so everyone plays every team as evenly as possible, then at the end of the season the top 16 (or 8 possibly) go to the playoffs. Last year would have looked nearly the same, but the finals wasn't nearly as competitive as it should have been. I like San Antonio playing New Joisey in the quarter finals rather than finals. It would look something like this

01 SAN 60
02 SAC 59
02 DAL 60
04 MIN 51
05 LAL 50
06 POR 50
07 DET 50
08 NJN 49
09 PHI 48
10 IND 48
11 UTA 47
12 NO 47
13 PHX 44
14 BOS 44
15 HOU 43
16 ORL 42

01SAN-----\
16ORL........\
....................01SAN-----\
................../...................\
08NJN-----/......................\
09PHI................................01SAN
......................................./
04MIN-----\..................../
13PHX........\................./
....................05LAL-----/
................./
05LAL-----/
12NOH

02SAC-----\
15HOU.......\
....................02SAC.....\
................./...................\
07DET-----/......................\
10IND............................... 03DAL
......................................../
03DAL-----\...................../
14BOS........\................../
....................03DAL-----/
................../
06POR-----/
11UTA

And Milwawkie, the pathetic team would be replaced by Houston, a team that won more games.

JamisonJigga · 08-29-2003, 06:58 PM

If I were GM, I would keep the NBA in America, and not expand it to other countries. I would also start an expansion in St. Louis/Kansas City. Oh, and send a message to NBA players to quit screwing around with drugs/violence/sex.

Hitman · 08-29-2003, 07:09 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by: Stressboy
Hitman,

I think your first suggestion is off base because of two reasons. 1st, the lessor teams would give up faster and thus make most of the games between the 5-10 teams worthless and 2nd, any small to medium injury might not be able to be overcome and the best teams might not make the playoffs (LA last year is an example, though many will argue that they were not the best, they might have been the second best team).

Your other suggestions are good, i would just add that the Euro teams should get minor league affiliations with NBA teams so that picks could be placed overseas to play. The NBA would not be able to pull a player up except at the beginning of the year and if they did the player would get a guaranteed contract. They also could cut the players only after the full year so essentially, they have guaranteed contracts paid by the NBA while in europe.

Now if the Euro leagues would not want to do this, then part of the negotiation with each league would be for an all NBA minor league team to play in each league. So in France they would have a single NBA based team that would be sponsored by 4 of the teams and the same with Spain, Germany, Italy, Greece, ??? whereever it makes sense. Each team could place 2-3 players in Europe to develop, but a limit would have to be set so that the team would not have all PG's for instance.

stressboy

The biggest problem that the NBA faces is that the regular season is irrelevant. You see it here all the time, on a board with BASKETBALL JUNKIES -- people who don't care about the regular season, they just want two more wins in the playoffs. How can the league sit idly by when its most ardent fans obviously think the regular season is meaningless?

Well, what if the playoffs wasn't even guaranteed? What if, to make the playoffs you had to go all out in each and every game? That would improve the league, in my opinion.

The talk radio airwaves are filled with football talk right now. In February and March, they are filled with baseball talk. But in October, nobody even talks about the NBA. Why? Because people who understand how the league works know that the regular season is irrelevant, the know the Lakers, Spurs, Mavs etc. will all be in the playoffs and the playoffs is the true "season" of the NBA. No one cares about the NBA regular season, because the NBA does not really give anyone a reason to.

As far as your point about injuries -- are the NY Jets not in a serious bind due to their loss of Chad Pennington? Of course they are. If this were the NBA, it would be no big deal because the Jets would automatically make the playoffs because 70% of the league makes the playoffs in the NBA. But the Jets have to compenstate with depth and teamwork to make up for their loss. That should be the same in the NBA.

Basketball will always be a distant third behind football and baseball in American consciousness until the league finds a way to make fans care about that black hole called the regular season.

one long blue sock · 08-29-2003, 09:19 PM

How about making teams into regions instead of citys.

And have like 15 teams, sure it would have less games. But the quality of the NBA would go up, and you could still have 5 teams not make the playoffs, but still have alot of talent. It would make it so teams like Atlanta and those kind of teams wouldn't happen. Every team would be watched.

I still have to think about this, maybe 20 teams instead of 15.

Fidel · 08-29-2003, 11:34 PM

Quote:

2. I would form a partnership with European basketball. I would incorporate those leagues into broacasts. I would put these games on NBA TV, I would talk about the future stars and I would promote them. I would negotiate with the European leagues to have a tournament amongst each other in the Spring to determine a "European champion" and I would have the NBA champion play the European champion following the finals to determine the "true" world champions. This would be a huge ratings draw around the world and would draw new fans year after year. The "World Championship of Basketball". I would also negotiate with leagues in Africa, Asia and Australia, and have them develop their leagues and in the future, have a true "World Championship" every year.

Hitman I pretty much agree with your points one and three, but point Nr.2 has got some flaws. First we´ve got something "to determine a European Champion" allready and for a long time too. Both on a club and on a national basis. On club basis it´s called the "Euroleague". The euroleague is pretty popular in countrys like spain, italy, greece and there´s alot of money involved.

The other idea of having the NBA champion and the euroleague champion play each other wouldn´t work IMO because as it is right now nearly all of the best euros play in the NBA. The euro teams wouldn´t stand a chance and euro fans would be pissed about it. The plan of David Stern to have NBA frachises in Europe seems a little bit more realistic to me. Maybe some euro top clubs could be involved in this but I don´t know if it going to work on a financial basis (i.e. would Real Madrid be willing to spend something around 300 mio $ as an entree fee to the league? I don´t think so. Would other owners in the NBA exept a much smaller amount? Again I don´t think so.)

The leagues in Australia, Asia and Africa are way to weak right now to participate in any serious competition. In Australia it´ll stay that way forever I guess cause they just don´t have the talent pool. Same goes for Africa, but mostly for economic reasons. Asia and South Africa may get something going but they are years (alot of years) away IMO (at least they´ve got the talent, but South Africa has got economic problems too and China, as the only country from asia with enough talent I Think, well we all know what Chinas problems are. Do you think the US or euro fans would like their teams to play against military teams which foremost purpose is to please some sickheaded polititians and military generals? I don´t think so.)

Hitman · 08-30-2003, 06:03 PM

Fair enough Fidel, maybe the Euroleagues are not up to par right now, but even playing an exhibition game vs. the Euro champions would be a draw.

I am all for Stern setting up an "NBA Europe" league, whose champion would face the "NBA North America" champion in late June. And I would work on setting up "NBA" leagues in the other continents as well. Basketball has an advantage over baseball and football in that it is a global game, and the league needs to do a better job of capitalizing on that.

Fidel · 08-30-2003, 09:38 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by: Hitman
Fair enough Fidel, maybe the Euroleagues are not up to par right now, but even playing an exhibition game vs. the Euro champions would be a draw.

I am all for Stern setting up an "NBA Europe" league, whose champion would face the "NBA North America" champion in late June. And I would work on setting up "NBA" leagues in the other continents as well. Basketball has an advantage over baseball and football in that it is a global game, and the league needs to do a better job of capitalizing on that.

Hitman, I don´t think an NBA Europe league a la NFL Europe is going to work. If they were trying to use it as a developemental league like the NFL people would rather go see Virtus Bologna or Real Madrid cause they can see better ball there. The NBA would also get in trouble with the euro clubs as the players that would play in a developemental NBA Europe are the same (to a degree) that are coveted by the european clubs. Euro club teams would also fear that the Euroleague structure was going to be destroyed, and maybe try to hold back players. So bad blood everywhere. Not a good plan IMO.

Another way would be to have a NBA Europe that is on the same level as the NBA. But would the NBA owners be willing to share players and money with their eurpean counterparts? Probably not. And it would also water down the competition even more if you´ve got to spread the talent to something like 50 clubs.

So the only way I see is to have a few selected citys in Europe with NBA franchises, or maybe a european division with not more then 7 clubs that would be part of the eastern conference (of course you´d have to realign the league).