What if the NBA was set up like the NFL?
Week 1 of the NFL season is here, and watching the games had my mind spinning. Would we love the NBA as much as we do if it was set up like the NFL? Football dominates the American sports landscape. Between September and February, football fans dedicate their water cooler conversations to being pissed off about their fantasy league.
The NBA’s fanbase has a significant overlap with the NFL, but the sports are very distinct. The NFL highlights product scarcity, while the NBA counters with product volume. This trend holds across a number of facets: the overall number of games, the possessions each team has per game, and even the overall broadcast coverage of the games.
The NFL’s success relies heavily on the importance of every single play. But here’s the catch — only 8.3% of an NFL broadcast is the actual game, and 11 of the 60 minutes of an NFL game are live plays. In no way am I suggesting that the NBA should do something that atrocious.
I’m also not asking for Marcus Smart to form tackle a rim-running Joel Embiid. I’m talking about the league’s schedule, particularly the number of regular season games and the playoff format.
Imagine if the NBA dramatically lowered their season down to 18 games, with each team playing their division rivals twice and only 10 teams from other divisions once. Only one game per week. Division winners and the team with the next-highest record make it into an eight-team, single-elimination playoff. Could you imagine the madness?
This new system would drastically change the way we think about individual games. NFL teams don’t have the luxury of taking games off. Load management would effectively disappear. With one game per week, every single game matters — shooting performances would come under greater scrutiny and defensive intensity would ratchet way up. The successful teams would have a clear identity on both sides of the ball. Every regular season game would feature playoff-level intensity.
Think about it: NFL fans care deeply about a team that they only see play 17 times a year. Every single play would be held under a microscope. Individual player performances would drastically define a career. If this upcoming season was lowered down to 18 games, what would we make of Jalen Green if he shoots 30% from the field in the first four weeks? How would the discussion look surrounding the Boston Celtics, who could realistically finish fourth in their division?
The NBA has way too much at stake to ever change their season structure. Basketball’s version of success is historically defined significantly by numbers. Reducing the number of games makes it impossible to break any of the current single-season records. This factor would make the league’s board of governors hesitant to lower the total number of games.
But the biggest factor working against any sort of shortened NBA season, of course, is money. Money is the driving force behind the NFL expanding to 17 regular season games this season, and potentially 18 regular season games in the near future. The NBA has considered decreasing their overall number of games, but despite some creative means to generate additional revenue, the league appears intent on maintaining the status quo. For now.
Imagining the NBA playing an NFL season is simply mental gymnastics. We’ve heard that the NBA is trying to implement baseball-style series to limit travel and keep players fresh. But some reduction of the NBA season could provide some awesome advantages for everyone involved — not the least of which include fresher players, decreased risk of injury and higher overall quality of play.
In the unlikely event that the NBA ever copies the NFL scheduling model, I’ll still be there to watch the Warriors sneak into the Wild Card spot with an 11-7 record. And I’ll ride them to the NBA’s version of a Super Bowl. But for now, I'll watch meaningless games in April between the Thunder and Spurs.