NBA commissioner Adam Silver eyes major changes for 75th season
Sunday 24 November 2019 09:10, UK
With the NBA's 75th season coming up in 2021-22, commissioner Adam Silver is looking to make a major overhaul to the league's schedule, according to an ESPN report on Saturday.
Among the changes Silver is targeting is a reseeding of the final four playoff teams, regardless of conference, and a mid-season tournament featuring every NBA team.
The league also could shorten the regular season by a few games to make room in the schedule for the mid-season tournament.
According to Zach Lowe and Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN, Silver and the league are in talks with the NBA Players Association and the league's various broadcast partners in hopes of bringing at least some of these proposals to April's Board of Governors meeting.
The mid-season tournament, which would be based on the European football model, would use regular-season divisional games to double as round-robin games to set up a separate playoff field. Those teams advancing would have a chance to play for the in-season title and the league presumably would be able to sell the broadcast package.
Another proposal Silver is said to be considering is play-in games for the season-ending playoffs, with the seventh to 10th seeds fighting it out for two playoff spots in each conference.
According to the report, Silver is eyeing the changes to add weight to regular-season games and give fans reasons to stay invested in teams longer into the season.
