Second Round Begins Tonight… First Round Ends… Sunday?

By: Jerome Cusson

I’m very curious about something. How can the NBA possibly begin two second round series on a Saturday before the Boston Celtics and Atlanta Hawks have finished game 7? I realize that this has a lot to do with television and TNT wanting a nice sexy doubleheader tomorrow, but the fact is it doesn’t make sense and strikes me as being wrong.

The whole playoff schedule in the NBA probably needs to be changed anyway considering two weeks alone are dedicated to the first round. Shifting the first round from five to seven games was ludicrous enough considering the already long regular season. We’ve gotten to the point where the best team doesn’t win, but the team that manages to have the most players at the end.  Here we sit at the beginning of mid-May knowing that these playoffs won’t be over until the end of June.

The playoffs shouldn’t be a war of attrition that takes two complete months. If the NBA wants people to remain interested and be able to watch every game, they should shorten the first round to three games to get it over with in one week. Then have the next two series be five games with the finals being seven. You’ll cut two weeks off the season. That’s two more weeks of rest and relaxation after a very long season.

Of course I’m realistic.  It’s never going to happen because teams make far too much money from holding the maximum amount of playoff games possible in every round. But as a basketball fan, it’s just not possible for me to watch every game and try to get into every series. Sports isn’t the only part of my life. It’d be nice if the NBA actually understood that.

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Jerome Cusson is a proud graduate of Columbia College Chicago. Currently, he is a freelance writer and a contributer to such websites as The Cool Kids' Table and giveawaytheending.com. Check out his NSR blog as well.

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2 Comments

  1. I heard the winner of the NBA title is going to face the Stanley Cup champion in a winner-takes-all 14-game series.

    Comment by den cotton on May 3, 2008

  2. Come on Den, it’d have to be a 15-game series.

    It’s all about TV schedules, and the second round starting before the first round begins actually doesn’t bother me too much.

    The length of the playoffs, on the other hand, is absolutely ridiculous. The NBA season is longer than the MLB season, isn’t it?

    Comment by David on May 3, 2008

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