The National Basketball Association (NBA) has a tanking issue that directly affects the entertainment of the league and the game being played, making the regular season meaningless and unwatchable.
For the last month, we’ve known which teams will be in the playoffs. The Golden State Warriors, who are the 10th seed in the West, are 11 wins clear of the 11th-place New Orleans Pelicans.
It makes me not care about the rest of the season to just wait for the playoffs.
The same situation is happening in the Eastern Conference, with the 10th-place Miami Heat being 10 wins clear of the 11th-seeded Milwaukee Bucks, who have shut down their superstar player, Giannis Antetokounmpo, for the rest of the season.
Antetokounmpo sustained a hyperextended knee injury on March 15, and the Bucks haven’t medically cleared him.
Antetokounmpo has expressed frustration with the Bucks for not clearing him to play yet, saying, “for somebody to come and tell me to not play or not to compete, it’s like a slap in my face.”
His comments signal that he wants to play, but could be being held off the court against his will, which leads to questions that this is happening because the organization wants to tank and get a better draft pick.
A mild hyperextended knee injury typically takes around two weeks to heal, but Antetokounmpo has been out for three-and-a-half weeks and is not expected to play again this season.
The NBA should issue harsh penalties to the Bucks and any other team that exhibits this type of behavior.
Even if this is a true case of injury, the NBA has to do something to make the regular season matter more, so there are limits on how often superstars spend sitting out.
The clear solution, to me, is to reduce the amount of regular-season games, from 82 down to around 65 or 70, along with getting rid of back-to-back games.
The reason the NFL has so many viewers each game is because every game matters, with each team playing 17 games in the regular season.
If you reduce the number of games, each game will matter more in terms of seeding for the playoffs.
Getting rid of back-to-back games will also make players healthier, featuring star players more consistently.
When the Warriors recently faced the San Antonio Spurs, they were managing their lineup in order to play their best against the Cleveland Cavaliers the next day.
The Warriors’ player with the most minutes played against the Spurs was Nate Williams, who played 47 out of 48 minutes. 47 minutes for a player who has appeared in just 12 games this season and is averaging 16 minutes per game.
In the next game against the Cavaliers, Gui Santos, Kristaps Porzingis and De’Anthony Melton all appeared in the starting lineup after not playing the day before, whereas Williams did not play.
In order to get the best product on the court, you must protect your players.
Reducing the number of games and getting rid of back-to-back games would improve the NBA’s product.
Shortening the season and playing the stars would reduce the number of teams truly tanking in a season, as more teams would try their best to be healthy enough to be in the playoff race at the end of the season.
NBA Commissioner Adam Silver needs to deal with this issue and adjust; otherwise, the NBA will become a secondary thought to other popular leagues, eventually drowning in its failure.
