Friday, February 22, 2008

Is the NBA is BACK?

The NBA is coming back everyone. The Association is hotter than ever since the Jordan era. After watching the Lakers - Suns game I am officially saying the NBA is making it's comeback tour. It started with the makeover of the Boston Celtics, one of the most important franchises and has continued with the recent trades with the Lakers, Suns, and Mavs. The Lakers - Suns game received a cable rating of 2.9 with 3.6 million viewers, the highest regular season rating since Yao's debut against Shaq in 2003. People have comeback to watch, but will they stay is the question. Although the NBA is stronger than ever in recent years, there are still improvements that need to be made before we can say it is here to stay. Here are some suggestions that could get the NBA over the top.

Get a Team in Las Vegas
This was huge talk last year when the all-star game was in Las Vegas. It seems that all those talks are dead, but getting a team in the city of sin would be huge for the league. Las Vegas is a great up and coming city that is dying for a sports franchise. I don't recommend another expansion team, but if we can get a small market team such as Minnesota or Milwaukee to move, would be better for the league. We can call the team the Las Vegas Card Sharks or Blackjackers. A great city needs a professional sports team, why not an NBA team?

Make the New York Knicks relevant
How is the most populated city in the US irrelevant in the basketball world? NYC is the one of the biggest markets in the world with rich basketball history, but is one of the worst teams in the NBA. Only if the Knicks just knew what a basketball was or if Isiah was excluded from the city like he was on the Dream Team the league would in better shape. The league always strives when the Lakers, Bulls, Suns, Celtics, and Knicks are doing good. A solution I have for this is to somehow find a way to get Lebron James in a Knick uniform, this would bring in other players and the team will be relevant again. If Spike Lee has to make a movie out of the James' to make this happen, then please do it. If the Knicks are not contenders soon, the league will never reach full potential. LBJ to NYC 2010, Spike Lee make this happen.

Cut the regular season games down
Let's face it, the regular season is a joke. Many would rather watch Women's College Bowling than watch on one the 82 regular season games. What makes the NFL so popular is that every game in the regular season counts. The western conference right now is in a rare situation where every game counts and two losses can get you from second seed to out of the playoffs. Now imagine if this were the case in every season, where every team saw each game as a must win. I'm not saying that they should only play 16 games, but if the league cuts the games to 62 instead of 82 then the urgency to win would be greater. The 82 game season also causes fatigue and injury that are costly for the playoffs, which is supposed to showcase the best teams at their best. Now would you rather watch a must win regular season game or women's college bowling? Unless it were topless bowling, nothing beats a must win game.

No more guaranteed contracts
I think by doing this, effort in NBA games will skyrocket and it will clean up the game's image as well. Players will have to play their heart outs and have to discipline themselves because money is not guaranteed to them. Teams like the Knicks will be able to get rid of everyone, including Isiah and start over. You can also see less strip club gun fights, acting out on coaches, quitting in games, punching fans, spitting at people, domestic violence, and whatever else laws the players love to break.

These are just some thoughts on how the League can improve and be the great sport I once was loved. Although these things will probably not happen, it would be fun if it did. What do you think would help the NBA to put them at the top again?

13 comments:

Anonymous said...

what about expanding teams to other countries. make the league world wide.

Anonymous said...

Get rid of that stpid arc or reduce it's distance from the hoop. That arc was a seriously bad idea.

Anonymous said...

Make shots behind the half court line 4 points

Anonymous said...

The one thing I do not want (but what david stern is pushing hard for) is to add a European division to the NBA. I don't like it because it means there are 4 or 5 more teams the warriors will have to compete with to win a championship. And for Western Conference teams the travel is just rediculous....I never knew the NBA went anywhere, I've never stopped watching Warriors basketball

Anonymous said...

1. Take the top 16 teams and the 6 division champs and that's it. Imagine the Warriors against KG in the first round, that could spell total upset.
2. Since we all think its fixed, teams that have big markets (New York, Boston,LA), favorable stadium deal (sorry Seattle), and more valuable franchise (talk to the bean counters at some accounting firm) should get more ping pong balls. Why should a team be rewarded for tanking at the end of the year? At least if you base it on demographics, TV ratings and market share, you have a lot better chance of getting the really good players in a prime market and if you can't make the playoffs you should not be in a position to complain.
3. If a team wants to unload a player for a young player and picks, they should be able to unload regardless of salary implication and how many bad contracts or really retired unless the team needs a salary to pull a trade situation
4. The luxury tax should go to charity (why should deadbeat owners get a bigger cut for not spending money) when Isiah, Dr. Buss, and Mark Cuban are paying the luxury tax. Any form of kick back to inner city kids would be great PR for the NBA teams and players
5. No player can be drafted that has not had 3 years of college or professional or national team experience (Euro or CBA, NBADL) If Kobe or whoever wants to make money and not go to college ... go to Europe ... Our great young players get exposure in Europe or a national team, college coaches like Coach K and Roy Williams can actual coach a player about fundamentals, and players come in with built in marketing from actual 2-3 years of solid play (there is a reason why Wade, D Will, C Paul, and Roy are able to dominate day one while Telfair is still lost on some distant planet.)

Anonymous said...

make the court wider

Anonymous said...

If i am D.Stern i will make a fixed salary and nobody can't exceed that amount...

Rookie....$800,000
Mid Level $ 5,000,000
High level $ 10,000,000
Superstars(Franchise) $15,000,000

have to exact amount and no teams can pay over $15M for one player.
To reach the Superstars player it must 25 yrs or older so before that u can't make huge salary...if u want more money then u go for commercial or make some movie ,dude.That way every team can manage the players and should be fair for all team...even small team can have superstar player coz it still reachable...

Anonymous said...

after M.J the NBA has fallen off


but Its coming back in a strong way


Nationally and obviously Internationally

Anonymous said...

fixed contracts for superstars is impossible

Eric Pedigo said...

I agree to agree on most everything. I do think that by being so incredibly bad the Knicks will land a franchise guy in an upcoming draft. I do think they should do away the lottery to insure that the worst team gets the top pick. And people need to stop making the 'Tanking games' argument. At this point, what's the difference between mailing it in and what the Knicks are doing? Either way, they lose. However, they definitely need to shorten the regular season, and possibly the playoffs. I also like doing away with the guarunteed money. Although it does seem like guys are playing harder this year. But you're definitely right about one thing, the NBA is coming back. I couldn't be happier. Keep up the great work man.

Eric Pedigo and The Athletic Supporters
Monday thru Thursday 4-6pm cst on
www.DisasterRadio.net

Anonymous said...

the nba is back, thank god.

Jack Brown said...

If there were no guaranteed contracts, Bonzi Wells would be an All Star. Or broke.

Anonymous said...

this team's i like stiff.



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