Fifteen years ago, I (Scott) fell in love with soccer during the 2002 World Cup. After the United States made their shock run to the quarters, I was hooked.
Four years after that, I watched every match of the 2006 World Cup. The United States was terrible, so I started rooting for England -- you know, the Motherland. England's starting forward that year was Peter Crouch. I could not take my eyes off of him. He was so tall and skinny; every step looked like it would be the one to snap his legs. It was riveting.
I started to do some research. Peter Crouch played for Liverpool in the Premier League. Instantly, I became a Liverpool fan. I wanted to see how good they were. It looked like they had finished second during the Premier League's regular season, but how had they done during the playoffs?
If you are reading this, you know the answer. There were no playoffs. There are no playoffs. It's why I watch the Premier League for nine months a year. Every match matters.
In 2006, I started a crusade to convince people that sports should not have playoffs. In 2009, I self-published a book to continue that crusade.
That crusade continues to this day.
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As I write this, the National Basketball Association (NBA) has a problem that has hit the mainstream. Its players do not care about the regular season. LeBron James continues to sit out games for the Cleveland Cavaliers, even though it means that the Cavs will not be the #1 seed in the Eastern Conference.
Some owners, media, players, coaches, and fans are outraged. These are people who believe that a true competitor should always play if he can and should always want to win if he plays. I get it a little bit. If I have a ticket to Cleveland's last regular season game sans LeBron, I would want a refund.
If he doesn't care about the game, I shouldn't have to pay full price.
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It's a problem unique to sports leagues with playoffs. In the NBA and the National Hockey League (NHL), 30 teams play 82 regular season games. The top 16 teams after those 82 games advance to the playoffs, which will decide the champion.
There are two problems with this. First, the NBA and NHL just spent six months forcing all of its teams to play 82 games, and the only purpose of that was to whittle down the number of teams playing from 30 to 16.
More than half of the teams make the playoffs in these leagues! What a colossal waste of time.
For all the criticism he is taking, LeBron has figured out something that his critics have not. He has figured out when he needs to play and when he does not. He got his team to qualify for the playoffs a long time ago. Mission accomplished for now.
In two months, if/when the Cavs are playing in the NBA Finals, almost no one will remember whether they finished the regular season as the #1 or #2 seed in the Eastern Conference. So why shouldn't he rest for the games that actually matter?
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The second problem with the NBA and NHL's playoff structure is that it does a terrible job of determining a champion. After the 82-game season whittles down the field from 30 to 16 teams, the knockout tournament begins.
The NBA/NHL playoffs are a 16-team tournament with best-of-7 rounds. The best team in this tournament is crowned the champion. Which is precisely the problem.
The NBA and NHL playoffs (or any playoffs, for that matter) do not crown the best team over the course of the entire season as the champion. Instead, the champion is simply the best team at the end of the season. See the important difference?
LeBron gets it. The purpose of the regular season is simply to be in the top 16. When the playoffs begin, he can try to make the Cavs the best team.
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What does this mean for you? Two things: One, you shouldn't waste your time (your life!) watching too many regular season games. Follow your favorite NBA and NHL teams just enough to make sure they will get in the playoffs. Save your time after that for the playoffs themselves. You know, the games that actually matter in these leagues.
Two, the very thing you love (playoffs) is itself the problem.
For the last decade, this is where I have lost most American sports fans. They just cannot wrap their minds around an NBA or an NHL without playoffs. They are losing the best part of the season if they join me in my cause.
But that's because, to them, the regular season doesn't mean anything. Even if they are unwilling to use those words.
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The NBA has publicly discussed its regular season problem. Commissioner Adam Silver seems to be a very intelligent man and a proper commissioner. He is asking the question: how do we fix our regular season problem? How do we get fans to care (i.e. to buy tickets/watch on TV)?
All sorts of suggestions have been made: shorten the season, add more incentives to winning games, etc. Interestingly, no one is suggesting the obvious solution.
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If you are still reading, you are either with me, curious to learn more, or open-minded enough to keep going. Good. There are a few principles that I think we can agree on by now:
- The fewer the games, the more each game matters.
- Without playoffs, regular season games are all that can matter.
- The more games that matter, the more games you will watch.
Seems obvious, right? I watch the Premier League for nine months because, without playoffs, every game matters. I watch the NBA and NHL for two months because that is how long the playoffs last, and that is all that I will watch. That is all that really matters.
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Which brings me to this final point: As the playoffs begin for both "winter" sports leagues in America, what if I told you that I had a solution? I have a solution that all Premier League fans will recognize that includes the best of all worlds for NBA and NHL fans.
A solution that has more basketball and hockey games that matter. A solution that incorporates the fun of the playoffs. A solution that makes every (or almost every) regular season game matter more.
What is that solution? Find out right here next week, in Part 2 of "How to Fix the NBA and NHL."
