well....I know spurs fans are having a great time,
too bad the rest of us are being bored to death. Everyone else with a good head on their shoulders have moved on thinking about the NBA draft....
I have called for David Stern's job for the last 4 years. Any other business with a declining product would start at the top.
Bill Simmons thinks drastic change is needed....
http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2...x?name=simmons
in a nuts ...he proposes abolishment of the conferences since they have been utterly useless. makes some valid points....I totally agree.....too many people are jumping ship after their team loses.
change the system. or make david stern step down.
I just got a splinter sitting on a bench in the park! ELIMINATE ALL WOOD FROM THE PARK! Or I could be more mindful of it in the future...
I just stubbed my toe on a wall. ELIMINATE ALL WALLS! Or I could just wear shoes...
I just got a C on my physics exam. ELIMINATE ALL PHYSICS! Or I could just study harder next time...
yes, and at the end of that arrangement you'll still get the Spurs in the finals, and you'll still complain about them being boring. You can adjust all you want, but the problem isn't in the seeding, the problem is the Spurs are too damn good, and too damn boring for everybody else.
I think we should just have America vote on which teams they want to see in the Finals.
The East has won 2 out of the last 3 Finals. There is no reason for a change, save for the angst of Northeastern sports media types who feel compelled to disparage the postseason success of any team not based in their region.
How is it "declining"? The NBA is more popular worldwide than ever before. In addition, Stern has had a rather big hand in building the NBA into what it is today. League revenues continue to climb every year and the league is set to sign yet another lucrative broadcasting rights contract.
This guy is complaining about the playoffs being boring, and then he wants to have a two-week tournament of the worst teams in the league?
Settle down sensitive Spurs supporters. Simmons has been insisting for weeks that the Spurs aren't boring to watch and he's right. However, these Finals ARE boring to watch because the Cavs are completely outclassed and the games haven't been very compe ive, and even when they are, you have two bruising halfcourt teams very good at defense -- first team to 80 wins.
I'd like to see the conferences done away with but keep the divisions. You play most teams 3 times, a handful of teams home and away. Take the top 16 teams, go back to the best of five format for the first round. The problem with the playoffs isn't that the Spurs are boring - they're not and they're an absolute necessity - a lone heavyweight in a league full of middleweights. The problem is the imbalance in the two conferences -- Detroit's win in 2004 was greatly aided by Malone's injury, and Miami's win last year was greatly aided by having a much smoother route to the Finals while Dallas had two bruising series against San Antonio and Phoenix. Cleveland is not that good and they were barely tested in reaching the Finals.
I'd be fine with eliminating conferences. I'm not sure why you need divisions AND conferences, aside from the All Star Game.
Until they make a rule that the Spurs aren't allowed to be champions, none of this really matters anyway.
Simmons needs to write about how to get the Celtics to stop sucking.
Did some of you even bother reading the article?
He makes solid points. Do I necessarily agree with the radical change he proposes? Yes and No, but I dont pretend to know better than anyone else, so thats a personal flaw.
But he never bagged on the Spurs (if anything, he swung from the low spot). He knew (like everyone else with a brain not living in Ohio) that the Spurs were going to dismantle, obliterate and completely destroy the Cavs.
Under his system, Phoenix, Detroit, SanAn and Dallas would never play each other until the conference Finals.
Anyway, I am in agreement with an alignment change, but his Super Playoff goofball idea is dumb beyond words. "Yes, lets reduce the regular season's importance to the same level of qualifying in NASCAR."
changing it now ok
but what happens if sa,mavs and suns start sucking?
then are you going to change it then to?
sure, why not? I can understand the rationale of having divisions -- it creates rivalries based on geographic proximity. But what purpose does having conferences serve? Teams travel by charter instead of coach now.
Change the system so that cheaters are disqualified.
That should take care of the Spurs quickly enough.
Youre a ing moron.
The Suns already have at least three rightful chamionships right? Did you get your "Phoenix Suns - The Peoples' Conference Finalist" shirts made yet?
If you maintained the current 6 division structure, you could equalize schedules (for the most part) and move towards something like league-wide seeding for the playoffs.
With 30 teams, if each team played all others 3 times, those teams would be playing 87 games. But if you keep the 6 divisions, you could provide that each team plays all others 3 times, but only has home-and-away dates with 1 team in each of the other divisions.
For instance, in Year 1, San Antonio plays every team in the league 3 times except: LA Clippers, Seattle, Chicago, Orlando, and Philadelphia.
In that year,
Dallas plays only 2 games against Sacramento, Utah, Milwaukee, Washington, and Boston;
Houston plays 2 against LA Lakers, Denver, Detroit, Miami, and New York;
New Orleans plays 2 against Phoenix, Minnesota, Indiana, Atlanta, and New Jersey;
Memphis plays 2 against Golden State, Portland, Cleveland, Charlotte, and Toronto.
In Year 2, the Spurs play everyone 3 times except: Phoenix, Minnesota, Indiana, Atlanta, and New Jersey
In Year 3, the Spurs play everyone 3 times except: Golden State, Utah, Detroit, Miami, and Toronto
The variations are endless, but you'd have a fairly balanced schedule and you'd be able, then, to seed across the league.
I'm not sure that it's entirely necessary to change the playoff structure, but I think Stern's quarrel that disparities are cylical doesn't really justify a complete refusal to reconsider -- the restructuring wouldn't be affected by a change in the cycle; in fact, it would account for that.
I could see that one quarrel with the argument is that you do away with (or limit) some regional rivalries that are worth preserving. But you might actually create some new rivalries that aren't necessarily regionally-based (a good playoff series between Utah and Toronto might actually create a rivalry that nobody would have expected). And with the current system, it's not like your assured of frequently getting playoff rivals to meet.
I haven't really given this much thought and I'm pretty much against the idea of tinkering with long-standing systems to address seemingly short-term concerns. But I'm also fairly sure now that there are ways to tinker that won't bring an end to the NBA as we know it.
bill simmons is a blowhard who doesn't know how to write anything but hyperbole.
this about sums the NBA playoff situation up:
http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/news;_yl...yhoo&type=lgns
"No question, these playoffs have been a disappointment and these Finals have been a dud. But it is one year, one example, of a number of bad luck cir stances.
No one was complaining a year ago when the first round was hailed as the greatest ever, when San Antonio, Dallas and Phoenix knocked each other around, when Dwyane Wade was lifting the Heat to a le. Or the year before when San Antonio and Detroit staged a seven-game duel. Or the year before when the Pistons shocked the Lakers.
This year? Terrible. But that's just the way the cookie crumbles sometimes."
Hehe...how many Finals have the Suns played in, again?
Lets not play this game, Mr. City of Phoenix. Unless youre talking New York, Chicago or LA, your city's sporting world isnt even in the same galaxy.
Besides, just sticking to basketball alone, you still lose from cradle to grave.
And yet I am the sort to not personalize any sporting franchise (for the obvious reasons). Maybe you do, but thats your problem in 2 ways...
1) You have no influence on anything sports related that you care about. Newsflash.
2) With Reason #1 in mind, even through some weird irrationality that makes you personalize a team, you have decided to emotionally invest yourself in a city/state that hasnt won anything, ever, in any sport.
So not only have you "hitched your wagon" to an abortion of a sporting market that is Arizona/Phoenix, your area has finally managed to assemble a true contender in an era where there are 2 others in your own conference that are consistently kicking your teams ass.
I dont know whether to laugh at you, or cry for you.
This year's playoffs has not been a disappointment by any stretch of the imagination. Its been highly entertaining and strangely unpredictable (which is an absolute rarity in the NBA).
Its just been a horrible Finals. Whose fault is that? If you had to blame some one or some team, you would have to blame the Pistons.
Every round has been great, except for the last one because one team is so much damn better than the other, its pathetic.
But even my blind homerism tells me SA would have exposed the Pistons for the Big Talk, No Walk, egotistical en led collection of whiney es they are.
Not to be a pedant or defend a Suns troll, but didn't the Snakes win a World Series?you have decided to emotionally invest yourself in a city/state that hasnt won anything, ever, in any sport.
the conference finals were pretty boring too. other than the one game where lebron went off, none of the conference finals games were special. maybe if wade wasn't injured and if the bulls had gotten the second seed it would've been a lot better, but most of these playoff series haven't been that compe ive.
Arizona Wildcats have done pretty well for themselves in college basketball as well. No timeout meltdowns at the end of championship games for that state's college.
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