By Aaron Blaylock

 

With the Team Who Shall Not Be Named claiming their meaningless title last night today will mark the end of my personal boycott of the NBA. Meaning, tomorrow I can once again visit NBA.com or click on a link to the Daily Dime or watch SportsCenter without having to flip the channel when they are talking about the Finals. I still can’t bear to hear Commissioner Stern’s voice or see a picture of anyone wearing silver and black, but in time that repulsion will fade.

It’s time to turn our attention to fixing the problem. The NBA has become like a piece of pizza (yes Peder, this is a food reference and yes I’m fat. ha ha). What I mean is a piece of pizza is a good thing; you have sauce, cheese and toppings. It’s delicious but then you come to the end of the slice and are left with the crust. Most just discard it. Some chew on it feeling obligated to finish it because after all it’s part of the slice that they had just been enjoying, but few actually enjoy it.  Much like anybody who actually watched the Finals.

The trick is to turn the NBA into a cinnamon roll (mmmm, CINNABON), or the last bite of a drumstick with the chocolate all down at the bottom (yes I have a weight problem). They are good till the last bite. I would argue they get better as you progress.

The climax for the NFL is the playoffs and the Super Bowl (most of the time); likewise Major League Baseball hits its peak come the playoffs and World Series. The greatest finale in all of sports is March Madness so the problem is not the sport it’s the league.

A few simple changes would fix all of that.

First and foremost is consistency. As a Suns fan I grow weary of “experts” saying that they can’t win in the playoffs. Why? Don’t they still play basketball in the playoffs? Well unfortunately they do not. Playoff games are officiated in a completely different way. A foul in March should still be a foul in May. The games mean more and the players are playing more desperately but should still be governed by the same rules.

Second, I add my voice throng of basketball fans calling for reseeding. It's not as drastic a change as scrapping the conference system and playing a balanced schedule allowing the league to seed the best teams 1-16 (which might become necessary since Oden and Durant are both bound for the Western conference). Reseed each round based on the highest seeds remaining.  This is a simple fix and the league has shown a willingness to tinker with seeding having just made a change last year.  It should not hesitate to make this change as well.  It's for the best.

Finally, stop dragging this doggone thing out so long. Go back to the best of five games in the first round and best of seven for the rest. Give them a day off for travel and two days between rounds. Otherwise it’s every other day.

The NBA is full of great players and can be a lot of fun to watch. It shouldn’t leave fans with a bad taste in their mouth. It should leave them wanting more. Like a moist delicious cinnamon roll. Oh yeah!