INDEPENDENCE, OHIO– Count Cleveland Cavaliers forward LeBron James as one of those who wouldn’t be a fan of changing the postseason format.
LeBron on why he doesn’t think the playoff format should be changed to the best 1-16 teams regardless of conference. pic.twitter.com/2EoGv1SqIP
— Ashley Bastock (@AshleyBastock42) February 21, 2018
“Let’s not get too crazy”, James said, when asked when he thought about the changes NBA commissioner Adam Silver proposed to the postseason seeding system. In James’ estimation, the All-Star Game (which featured a brand-new format this season) is one thing” but changing the playoffs would change the NBA fundamentally.
“It just changes the landscape of the history of the game”, James said.
In addition, James certainly believes the NBA “has been built the right way when it comes to the postseason.”
Citing the “dominant conferences throughout time”, James then reeled off some Eastern Conference teams that went on dominant runs.
The Detroit Pistons. The Boston Celtics. His Miami Heat. The current Cleveland Cavaliers. Then counting the Eastern Conference teams that have won titles in the last 14 seasons, James would estimate that half of the NBA titles over that time belong to Eastern Conference teams. While he counted seven teams, there were actually six teams from the Eastern Conference that have been champions since the 2003-2004 season (2004, Detroit Pistons; 2006, Miami Heat; 2008, Boston Celtics; 2012 and 2013, Miami Heat; 2016, Cleveland Cavaliers).
With that said, James certainly makes a fair point. While the top-tier teams in the Western Conference have been more numerable and dominant than the Eastern Conference as of late, the Western Conference are heavyweight sluggers going toe-to-toe with a featherweight. There’s more of a balance of power than it seems.
With Silver’s proposed changes, instead of playing the first three rounds exclusively against teams that are in their conference, there’s a possibility that these teams could face an inter-conference foe within those first three rounds. There’s also a possibility that the NBA Finals could feature two teams from the same conference.
Quote transcribed by ESPN’s Brian Windhorst:
“You also would like to have a format where your two best teams are ultimately going to meet in the Finals,” Silver said. “You could have a situation where the top two teams in the league are meeting in the conference finals or somewhere else. So we’re going to continue to look at that. It’s still my hope that we’re going to figure out ways.”
Under Commissioner Silver, there have already been major changes made to how the NBA is run. Changes to the NBA’s Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) aside, the regular season schedule has been spread out to decrease back-to-back games with an aim to improve player health. As alluded to at the beginning of this piece, there were also changes to the All-Star Game format with teams being handpicked by elected captains and monetized incentives to boot.
James’ quotes run contrary to Silver’s idea that the main obstacle in changing the postseason format would be travel and not tradition.
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