A Humble Idea

Make that trophy just a little harder to win

Basketball, it is considered one of the four major sports, a fan favorite of most every casual sports fan, and a personal favorite of mine. Yet, it seems a majority of people would almost instantly choose college basketball over the NBA. Fans cite the college enthusiasm and college atmosphere, as well as the NBA's rules, or lack there of, in the case of traveling, and continuation. But, there is one clear advantage of the college game, and that is the playoff system.

March Madness is one of, if not the, premiere sporting event of each year, and the NBA playoffs lacks the excitement of such a fast-paced tournament. The first argument against the NBA joining this style of single elimination, is the chaos of it all. A seven-game series strongly favors the better teams, which seems fair because after a 82 game schedule the better teams should have the advantage, but I'm here to say, screw the better teams! Who cares if the Heat won 66 games or the Bucks won 38, making a single elimination playoff system would ensure that every casual fan would have watched that first round game, in contrast to the fifteen people that watched that four game sweep earlier this postseason. This system would also create a much shorter playoffs, which may seem sad at first, but it is truly quality over quantity in this case.

Let's be honest, if this Finals had been one game, there would have been so much excitement surrounding it, that no Game 7 could ever match, simply because that is the nature of a single elimination playoff. It would allow for Heat haters to hate harder and fans to cheer louder, which, in reality, is what makes sports fun. If you were the only fan who rooted for a team, or if every single person rooted for the same team, no one would enjoy watching the battle between two great teams like the Spurs and Heat. One final argument is this: If Lebron, or Kobe, or Durant is really that good, then they should have the ability to succeed in this format, the very same way they succeed at the 7 game series format, only the stage would be set with 10x the excitement and 10x the fan support.

If Mario Chalmers and Trey Burke can lead teams through a field of 64, then Lebron James and Kobe Bryant can lead their team through a field of 15. Its just a humble idea, that I believe could reinvent the NBA.

-O.O.F