LeBron Doesn’t Think the NBA Should Change their Current Playoff Format
Adam Silver floated the idea of the NBA modifying its playoff build to 1-16 seeding in place of the current East-West format: https://t.co/tthHyqIPCW
— SportsCenter (@SportsCenter) February 18, 2018
Last weekend, Adam Silver tossed around the possibility of the NBA reseeding the playoffs. The number 1 team in the league would play the number 16 team, regardless of conference. So basically, we could see Eastern Conference teams playing Western Conference teams in the first three rounds.
Personally, I am all for this idea. I think it would make for better overall matchups in the first three rounds. Parity is always a good thing in my eyes. However, the one issue I’ve noticed some people have is travel. Some teams would have to travel cross country, while others wouldn’t. But with a change this big, I feel like the league would try extending rest days based on how far everyone would have to travel. It wouldn’t make sense if they didn’t based on how massive of a change this would be.
Now, of course, there’s always somebody that hates change. LeBron James falls into that category:
LeBron James on playoff realignment talk: ‘Let’s not get too crazy’ https://t.co/C5IIbc3QAApic.twitter.com/IpDOhNjldP
— Yahoo Sports (@YahooSports) February 21, 2018
It’s obvious why LeBron doesn’t want to change the current format, right? He’s been to the Finals 7 years in a row coming out of the East, so why would he want to go up against much better competition from the West? He doesn’t want his streak to end, it’s that simple. And it makes sense that he’d like to keep things the way they are (while he’s still in the East), however, I can’t say that I stand with his belief. A massive change like this would probably bring in a ton of extra viewership the NBA didn’t already have, which I’m sure Adam Silver knows. If the game is going to continue growing, this would be a huge step in the right direction. Sometimes change is good, and I think this is one of those times.
-Nick Cherico (@NickCherico2)