NBA should follow NCAA’s lead

Wed., June 13, 2007

Mark Vasto King Features Syndicate

I try not to laugh when it comes to my professional sports, but that’s exactly what I had to do when the early-shift television sportscaster compared the NBA semifinals to the NCAA’s Final Four.

Comparing the NBA to college basketball is like comparing 7-up to Louis Tr’s. It’s like comparing Ali-Frazier to Superfly Snuka vs. the Tonga Kid. It’s such a ridiculous thing to do.

Since this is the nutshell paragraph, let me just say that the sportscaster did — albeit unintentionally — make a great point: the NBA playoffs should be run as a single elimination tournament. And before I expound on that argument, let me say it more succinctly another way: The NBA playoffs are absolutely terrible to watch.

And before you lost tribes of diehard NBA playoff watchers send me e-mails about what a hater I am, let me remind you that in bars all across America, “Law & Order” — with those Bombay-typed subtitles — is seen on more television sets than playoff basketball.

And I haven’t seen anybody complain.

Part of the problem stems with the television coverage. It isn’t a coincidence that when sportscasting personalities were stars, the coverage of the games shone too. Only Marv Albert could convince fans that John Starks could take Michael Jordan during the mid-‘80s. That was the kind of major suspension of disbelief that made those games worth watching. Today’s marketing message basically amounts to “try and catch a Cleveland Cavaliers game because LeBron James is, like, really good and stuff.”

That’s the other part of the problem: LeBron James and players like Kobe Bryant are truly “really good and stuff.” But it just isn’t going to work when you’re the one scoring 81 points per game and your team isn’t making the playoffs. It just isn’t compelling television to watch basketball players hang all over Shaquille O’Neill like a bunch of grade schoolers on summer break hanging on dad at the neighborhood pool.

The NBA would do well to follow the lead of the NCAA and adopt a single elimination tournament format. With the exception of the NFL, no other major sports league does so, and the amount of attention the league would earn for executing this change would far make up for any losses pertaining to the change of format.

The players could help out a bit by making more than half their shots, but the real incentive falls squarely on the powers that be in the NBA. A change to a tournament format would certainly benefit the NBA in the long run.

Imagine actually caring about an NBA game and their multizillionaire shoe and Nutella spokesmen players again. Doesn’t that sound too good to be true?

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