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Mark Cuban would 'rather have the season go longer,' and we agree
The NBA’s 2015-16 opening night took place on the same night that the first pitch of the 2015 World Series was thrown. Stephen Curry was handed his championship ring by NBA commissioner Adam Silver, George Brett threw out the ceremonial first pitch, Curry ended up dropping 40 in Golden State’s win over New Orleans, Alcides Escobar hit an inside the park home run in the Kansas City Royals’ win over the Mets, and everything turned out just fine.
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The internet was able to handle things. The NBA didn’t shutter down in the face of the October (and eventually November) Classic, and sports continued apace.
Why, wonders Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban, can’t the NBA extend things even further into October, or even late June? Especially when the league’s players need to value rest more than ever, as the demands of the pro game continue to increase?
“I’d rather have the season go longer for another 10 days because it’s not like there’s any competition,” he said. “But that’s just my choice.
“People say to cut a couple of preseason games off, which I’m fine with. I like preseason because I think it gives our guys a chance to play, but I would be OK with cutting a couple of preseason games down to five or six.”
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“I just think television has changed so that the difference in households watching television on June 12 [for the NBA Finals] vs. June 24 or 26 isn’t that big, because football hasn’t started yet,” Cuban said. “It’s just the dog days of baseball and people are crying for sports still, and there’s nothing to watch.
“I think spreading out will be great for the league.”
Cuban’s point is spot on.
The NBA recently added some time for an actual “break” to its All-Star break, and league schedulers already do a fantastic job attempting to limit the number of back-to-back games and four-game-in-five-night shifts, but there’s absolutely no reason why the league can’t start its season earlier, and end it later in the summer.
Would this push the NBA draft back a bit? Of course, and who cares? The NFL has its draft some 11 weeks after the Super Bowl, while the NBA’s draft could take place just one week after a Game 7 of the Finals this June. Hell, the NFL does think twice before slotting its draft up against NBA playoff games, and it earns months worth of extensive coverage and attention from fans who, by the point of the draft, might be four months removed from watching their favorite team play.
This brings up another crucial element that few have discussed when debating whether or not to extend the NBA calendar.
We, genuinely, have the good of the game at heart here. More time off means more rest and better play, and it would also mean that coaches would be less likely to bench certain older players during regular season games, allowing ticket-purchasing fans to get what they paid for.
Compressing the NBA schedule hurts the league’s popularity. The league might be more popular and profitable than ever, but there is absolutely no reason to have the NBA’s offseason effectively over by July 4. Sure, there’s the odd restricted free agent chatter, and DeAndre Jordan could always change his mind again, but by and large the NBA’s free agent period is more or less complete after a few first days in July.
Extending the regular season and then allowing for more time between the Finals and draft only adds to the intrigue. This isn’t the 1980s, when David Stern had to strike big with the draft on the USA Network while the iron was hot following a Lakers/Celtics Finals pairing. The fans are already there, and with every team tied for first place with the draft approaching, why not add to the buildup?
This would then push the free agent period back as well, which is good news for a league that you can barely find in the sports section from the middle of July until late September. It’s unavoidable – fans love transactions and rumor mongering (under the auspices of “team building”) nearly as much as the game itself. What’s wrong with milking that, NBA?
Oh yeah and there’s also the thing where NBA players would get a little more rest and the on-court product would improve as a result. That whole thing. From Cuban:
“We’re not stupid,” said Cuban, whose team hosts Minnesota at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday at American Airlines Center. “The game’s gotten faster, there are more possessions per game.
“The game is more athletic, and so you don’t want to increase the chance of your guy getting hurt.”
I’m 197 years old, and turning on a radio broadcast of my favorite baseball team (again, “old”) as the gloaming sets in during June and July is one of my life’s great joys. To be able to downshift into baseball’s slower pace after the bundle of nerves that is the NBA playoffs, draft, and free agency run is a yearly, welcome release.
I don’t mind pushing it back a little, though, at the risk of missing the call of my favorite baseball team’s 72nd game in late June. Nor should the NBA be fearful of further overlapping with an MLB postseason that they already compete with.
It will help the players, it will help the product in January, and it will certainly help things come spring and summer. Stretch things out a bit, NBA.
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is an editor for Ball Don't Lie on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at KDonhoops@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter! Follow @KDonhoops
