nbanit

The N.B.A.N.I.T.       

    March 2009

The fine line between satire and marketing genius.

129 college basketball teams saw their seasons extend with an appearance in one of four postseason tournaments for Division I men's basketball. It's time for the National Basketball Association to take a cue from our universities and revamp their own post season by adding the N.B.A. National Invitational Tournament.

Collegiate basketball has inherited much from the professional game. From the shot clock to the three point line, it has always been a largely one-way evolutionary flow. Now it is time for the NCAA to strike back, and the pros to insert its own second-tier tourney, akin to college basketball's NIT. 

Fans and media have long complained that the NBA playoffs, commencing in April only to stretch all the way into mid-June, are too long. Every time a sub-.500 team qualifies for the playoffs, as is all but certain to happen again this year, basketball pundits note the ridiculous first round mismatches produced. Folks, short of Michael Jordan getting a decade younger and returning to the NBA for the seventh time, the Chicago Bulls have absolutely no chance to emerge from the 2009 playoffs as NBA champions. But until they get swept in the first round, they will officially be in contention. 

The Bulls don't belong in the over-extended post season. At least, not this kind of post season. The NBA should follow college basketball's long-running example, the National Invitational Tournament, and institute the NBANIT. The top four teams from each conference qualify for the NBA Playoffs, and teams 5-8 in each conference, instead of being drummed out in the first round by teams like the Cavaliers and Lakers, the "playoff" teams that are undeniably one big step down will compete in the NBANIT. Much like in college basketball, these two tournaments can run concurrently. And since we've eliminated one full playoff round, an entire seven game series, the league can add a few more regular season games to the schedule and still crown a champion at the same time, but before fans have reached full playoff-basketball saturation.

If the NBA is especially ambitious they might consider staying hot on the heels of college basketball which went even farther in recent years by introducing two additional post season tournaments, the College Insider.com Tournament and the College Basketball Invitational tournament.

There are 30 teams in the NBA, and I see no reason why every squad can't experience the post-season, or at least A post-season, every year. If Wyoming University got to taste some March Madness of their own in losing a 64-62 nail biter to Northeastern in their first round matchup of the 2009 College Basketball Invitational, then why the heck shouldn't, say, the Milwaukee Bucks face off in a post season tournament against the Toronto Raptors in a first-round, third-tier playoff series to conclusively determine the best of the worst of the worst of the Eastern Conference? 

There is no good reason that the last-place Washington Wizards aren't preparing, right now, to try and bring a title home to the nation's capital, in 2009.

home