Email Cory

David Stern has proven to be a very active and usually good decision-maker.  If nothing else he is a consistent business man.  So he must be somewhat concerned when his league is apparently struggling with its popularity within its home country. 

Allow this humble analyst and fan of the game a few proposals.  Myself and others would very much like:

• Contracts that are not guaranteed.  Initially, you may feel as I did; “There’s absolutely NO way the player’s union would ever agree to this.”  But wouldn’t the union benefit?  The best players would be able to earn appropriate money and the terrible, lazy, distracted or injured players would not have the luxury of getting paid without earning it.  This would also lessen a lot of the negative perception that players that get paid, stop giving 100%.  I think if the players knew that they could be cut, along with their contracts, we might see a more competitive league.

• Suspensions and fines for on-court conduct to be determined case-by-case and eliminate the pre-written “rule” that determines punishment without considering circumstances.  Everyone in the world of basketball is well aware of what happened to Rudy T.  Rudy knew the risk he was taking running out to break up a skirmish.  Every baseball player that leaves the bench understands what might happen.  Setting an all-encompassing rule with mandatory punishment is short-sighted.  It’s a long season with a lot of contact amongst highly competitive athletes.  Incidents are going to occur.  Take each incident into consideration in light of its circumstances and its outcomes.

• I would like sports analysts and media, especially sports radio hosts, to properly inform the masses about the league, games, coaches, managers, players and teams.  Nearly 100% of the time, the NBA focus is on “stars” and negative publicity.  There are a lot of dynamic personalities, talents, chemistries and stories aside from the “stars”.  Can we stop ignoring small-market teams, coaches, managers, and players?  We rely on you for our news.  If the ratings are low, it’s probably because you are doing a terrible job at work.  Share the true stories, create some interest, and the public will watch.  Enough with the murder.

• Less timeouts.  The consequence is teams would have to make more adjustments on the fly.  If you do your coaching before the game and develop your adjustment strategies, a new element would be added to the game.  A floor general would have even more value.  Six full timeouts and two 20-second timeouts might be ok during the high pressure playoffs, but let’s speed up the regular season games and drop at least two of those timeouts.
• Stadiums need to dim the crowd lights during play like the number one selling arena in the NBA, the Staples Center.  The more we can focus on the games, the more games we will focus on.

• Less music during play.  Is there anything wrong with sneakers squeaking?  I don’t mind the public address announcers leading a few cheers.  I don’t mind an organ or drum machine giving rhythm to the crowd, but save the Top 40 for dead ball situations.

• A change in the playoff format.  The playoffs are an endurance test for the teams and the fans.  A little spice, new match-ups and an element of surprise would boost those record-low television ratings.  There must be a format that sees the best teams have the best chances to advance the furthest.  The conferences have not been equally competitive since the 1980s.  ESPN.com’s John Hollinger suggests cross-seeding the first brackets, whereas all the odd seeds in one bracket are from the East and all the even seeds are from the West and vice versa for the other bracket.  Another suggestion is seeding the top 16 records in the league 1-16 and play one bracket.  Other shakeups regard using a home and away mix of 2-2-1, 2-3-2, 3-3-1.  The current 2-2-1-1-1 used in the first three rounds is simply too much travel and requires too many days off.  There too many pros and cons of each proposal to get into now. 

• For the league to find a new way to generate revenue, other than commercial breaks that drive the need for TV timeouts.  Nothing kills the common fans’ interest in the game than commercial after commercial, especially those due to a TV timeout.  Recent university studies have concluded an overwhelming economic advantage to allowing corporate logos on uniforms and courts, a la NASCAR and the most profitable soccer leagues around the world.

• Cheaper seats closer to the court filled by true fans of the team.  Corporations pump a lot of cash into advertising and sponsorships associated with the NBA.  I couldn’t imagine a better way to gain the public’s support than to sponsor seats in the lower bowl.  Instead of dropping $15,000 on a 30 second commercial spot, drop $30,000 on the ticket prices at the north and south ends of the court.  The public adores you throughout the course of the game and your name would be mentioned and thanked the whole time.  Tickets would be $5-$10 and have your corporation’s logo on them.  The real fans, the kids and families, could get down low without refinancing their mortgage.

• The officiating needs to be more consistent whether it’s the last five seconds or the first five seconds.  There are too many games that appear very one-sided, even from a non-bias viewpoint.  There needs to be some type of allowable contact on non-shooting defense. 

• Flopping needs to be punished the same way as wayward elbows.  If you unquestionably flop, whether you’re caught or not at the time, you’ll be fined and after so many you will be suspended.

• I would like for coaches, GMs, and TEAMS rightfully get more credit for wins than simply the stars.