Playoffs need pizazz

CLEVELAND – It was difficult to imagine during the delirium of the opening-round thriller between Dallas and Golden State that the NBA playoffs would spiral into irrelevance. The only thing worse than the on-court product at the end of the championship series was the apathy to which it played.

As proud as they were of reaching the finals, and in the Spurs’ case winning their fourth championship in nine seasons, even the participants knew they were involved in something only hard-core pro basketball fans could stomach. More than a few of them would peek to see who was listening, then say quietly something to the effect of, “God, this is awful …”

There’s nothing the league or its television partners could have done about the NBA Finals, the lopsided nature of the Spurs’ 4-0 sweep or the utterly inartistic nature of the play. The championship series has had clunkers before. Even Shaq and Magic Johnson have been swept out of the NBA Finals. The Spurs, one of only four four-time champs in league history, simply are decisively better and more experienced than LeBron James and the medium-rare Cavaliers.

But there is something the NBA and its television partners (ABC/ESPN and TNT) can do to improve the playoffs. They owe it to the people they’re trying to attract to have the best teams and (usually) the best matchups as late in the playoffs as possible.

It’s called reseeding, something the NFL, MLB and NHL wisely do already.

Six weeks ago, when it appeared ludicrous to have the league’s two best teams, San Antonio and Phoenix, playing in the second round instead of the conference finals, Commissioner David Stern pretty much said reseeding was a no-go. Friday, in an interview with ESPN’s Dan Patrick, Stern indicated that reseeding is something the league will take a long look at this summer.

ESPN.com’ s Bill Simmons, among others, has outlined scenarios in which the NBA seeds the playoffs 1-16 without regard to conference. In other words, the Dallas Mavericks would have opened the 2007 playoffs against the Orlando Magic.

That I find a little too radical. But reshuffling the seeds to have San Antonio vs. Utah and Phoenix vs. Golden State in the second round would have been compelling, while leaving (probably) Spurs vs. Suns for the Western Conference finals. The notion that the Warriors should be rewarded for upsetting Dallas is generous. But should protecting any one team’s interests, especially a bottom seed, supersede trying to ensure the most attractive playoff field possible?

No. That’s idiotic. The NFL, MLB and NHL already know that.

I do have one envelope-pushing wrinkle: Reseed regardless of conference for the third round, the NBA’s final four. If one conference stinks for an extended period of time, as the Eastern Conference has since 1998, it wouldn’t drag down the entire proceedings because it wouldn’t have a guaranteed spot in the Finals. This year, my reseed proposal would have had the Suns, Spurs, Pistons and Cavs, in that order. The Suns would have played the Cavaliers. The Spurs would have played the Pistons, with the winners, probably the Spurs and Suns, meeting for the NBA championship.

You think that series would have attracted more interest than the un-watchable Spurs-Cavaliers sweep we just saw?

This isn’t just a one-time fluke of a postseason, by the way. Dallas and San Antonio played in the second round last year, absurdly. If you get Phoenix-Chicago in the third round, so what? I don’t want to hear about travel concerns when, as Simmons points out, all teams travel on private jets now and the 2-3-2 format involves less travel and therefore fewer expenses than 2-2-1-1-1. In fact, the parade of excuses put forth the league just doesn’t cut it.

So what if reseeding leads to unpredictable matchups that force ABC and TNT to go without a game on a Sunday or two? Is that worse than seeing this series finish with a record-low 6.2 television rating and 11 share – a 27 percent drop from last season? The biggest story of the playoffs has become how many people aren’t watching.

What the NBA needs is a marquee event overhaul, and the TV partners need to not only facilitate it but lead the discussion. One of many reasons the NFL is the best sports-and-entertainment product in America is the NFL isn’t nearly as reluctant to make product-enhancing changes. Every year the NFL tinkers with something, whether it’s scheduling, television start times, playoff seedings. If it doesn’t work, the NFL says: “Scrap it. Let’s try this.” The NFL is at the forefront of change while the NBA just stands pat, even in the face of a fan exodus.

The public has turned thumbs down on the NBA, and the league’s powers-that-be need to stop spinning the decline in popularity and find new ways to showcase the best athletes in the world. ESPN’s Patrick has come up with a great idea to help create new interest in the lottery. Patrick suggests the NBA have the two worst teams in the league play a single game during the NBA Finals where the winner’s prize is the No. 1 pick in the lottery. Fabulous.

Union chief Billy Hunter was quoted as saying he, too, is concerned about the bottom line (read: revenue). So dare him to be an obstructionist and tell the teams they will play such a game. Sit the top prospects at courtside (Greg Oden, Kevin Durant, half the Florida Gators) and let them watch as the two teams fight it out.

Also, the tired old East vs. West format of the NBA all-star game should be dumped. Instead, put a World Team out there (Tim Duncan, Dirk Nowitzki, Steve Nash, Tony Parker, Manu Ginobili, Luol Deng, Yao Ming, Leandro Barbosa, Boris Diaw, Peja Stojakovic, Andrea Bargnani, Jorge Garbajosa, Bostjan Nachbar) against a Team USA (LeBron, Dwyane Wade, Kobe Bryant, Amare Stoudemire, Kevin Garnett, Tracy McGrady, Carmelo Anthony, Gilbert Arenas, Carlos Boozer, Deron Williams, Elton Brand, Oden, Durant) and you’d have people talking about the matchup for weeks before and after … for five years.

People aren’t as tired of basketball or the players as they are by the same old uninspired packaging, and there are too many smart and creative people working at the top levels of the league and the networks to watch a sport with the possibilities of professional basketball fall to the point where so few are watching, and even fewer care.