On-Air Now
On-Air Now
Listen Live from the Casino Matrix Studio

Fitz: NBA’s forward-thinking culture another reason to celebrate start of Warriors’ season

By

/


Sometimes people mistake tradition for the “way its always been”. But vibrant organizations are constantly changing, often for the better while occasionally making mistakes in the pursuit of fixing problems.

The various sports leagues all have issues that are sometimes complex but often could be addressed with just a little cooperation and a long-term view that would make each game better.

The NFL should have teams coming off a bye play their Thursday night matchups. It’s a simple and easy fix in the schedule. Yet the league seems to have zero interest in player health and/or degraded football for fans.

Baseball should cut short Spring Training and begin the season earlier. The first weeks of the schedule should be in warm weather cities and indoor venues to avoid rain or cold weather. Instead the worthless Spring Training goes on forever and the very best playoff games are played so late in the fall we have had snow for World Series games. Ridiculous.

But the NBA often is an excellent example of a league that listens to fans, players, owners, TV networks and attempts to constantly improve the product.

The Warriors were at the forefront of schedule change with their absurd stretch from a year ago. At Philadelphia, at Washington (back to back), at Chicago, at New York, at Atlanta (back to back), home for Boston, at Minnesota, at San Antonio (back to back). In 24 years in the NBA I had never seen such a stupid stretch. Steve Kerr rightly rested Steph Curry, Draymond Green, Kevin Durant and Klay Thompson in the San Antonio game. On national TV.

So what did the NBA do in this situation? They spoke with head coaches, GMs, Owners and players. And then-

  • Cut the pre-season in half.  From eight to four games.  
  • Started the season earlier in mid-October giving players more days off
  • Reduced back-to-back games
  • Eliminated four games in five nights for the whole league
  • Put a fine system in place of $100,000 or more if teams rest star players on the road
  • Prohibited random resting as conduct detrimental to the league, giving the Commissioner the power to levy even heavier financial penalties.

But the NBA didn’t stop there.

  • Instituted new rules protecting the “air space” of shooters as they land
  • Instituted new rules helping eliminate jumping into defenders to draw phantom three-point shooting fouls
  • Eliminated two timeouts per game and limited timeouts at the end of games to improve game flow

Now certainly all of these actions might not result in perfection. But it is the constant search for improvement that defines a league and its leadership. Yes, there are billions of dollars at stake. Even more reason to really listen to all the constituencies that are involved in the game.

The old slogan was that the NBA was “fantastic”. I’ll take forward thinking, collaborative and constantly searching for improvement.

With the Giants done and the 49ers rebuilding, bring on the Warriors. Can’t start soon enough.