Ranking The Absurdity Of Home-Court Advantage Alternatives Being Discussed By NBA
By Matthew Geagan, CBS Boston
BOSTON (CBS) -- NBA basketball will resume in the near future, with the league ironing out the details for the end of the 2019-20 regular season and the format for the playoffs. Including in those details are some rather ... unusual concessions the league may make for the higher seeds in the postseason.
The NBA appears set to bring 22 teams to one site, with Disney World the leader in the clubhouse at the moment. With that, home-court advantage goes out the window at the most important part of the season. That has higher seeds asking for some perks when they trot down to the house of mouse.
According to ESPN, there are several scenarios being discussed at the moment. We'll rank them based on the level of absurdity of each of these proposals.
Not Too Absurd
- The higher-seeded team being awarded the first possession of the second, third and fourth quarters, following the traditional jump ball to begin the game.
There has to be some kind of advantage for being the higher seed, and this one makes the most sense. It seems like it's the best bad idea that the NBA has at the moment.
This advantage would give the higher seed up to two additional possessions throughout the game, which they probably would have received anyways when referees let screaming fans dictate how they call the game. Solid concession, we're in!
- Playoff teams, in order of seeding 1-16, receive first choice on picking which hotel they will stay at in the ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex and Disney World Resort.
This is great. Higher seeds should not only pick which hotel they get, but also which rooms they get to stay in -- and the rooms of the lower-seeds. The top teams get fancy suites while the lower seeds get the rooms us casuals would enjoy. The No. 1 seeds get to sleep on water beds with rose pedals, while the lower seeds get that extra cot crammed into the janitor's closet. (The middle seeds can have those beds that vibrate for a quarter.) Isn't that what players are really playing for in the regular season?!?
Higher seeds should also gets dibs at riding in the front of the monorail. It's only fair.
Absurd, But We Like It
- The higher-seeded team being allowed to designate one player to be able to be whistled for seven fouls instead of six before fouling out.
From a Celtics standpoint, imagine Marcus Smart getting an extra foul to do his thing. With that added cushion, he may literally put on some football pads and pretend to be a linebacker for a few plays.
This rule would benefit the physical defenders of the league the most, and for that, we're in.
This Is Lunacy
- The higher-seeded team receiving an extra coach's challenge.
Has anyone ever watched a basketball game and said to themselves, "Gee golly, I wish the coach had an extra challenge right about now!" No. No one has ever said that.
Maybe instead of giving coaches an extra challenge, the league should give them a 30-second vent session where they can say whatever they want after zebras blow an obvious call. Coaches unfiltered, just roasting Kenny Mauer and Scott Foster for 30 straight seconds. This would actually make a great Netflix comedy special.
And it's not like officials reverse their bad calls on review anyways. With no fans in the stands, this would be an awesome 30 seconds of eavesdropping for fans at home.
- The higher-seeded teams being able to transport their actual hardwood home court from their arenas to Orlando to try to preserve the feel of their home playing experience.
This is a joke, right? Are teams taking that whole home court thing a little too literal?
This isn't the Boston Garden of the '60s, when only Celtics players knew which boards had a funky warp or a bolt sticking up. All courts are basically the same, minus the giant logos that grace the boards. Oh, and the advertisements. This is all about the advertisements getting some air time, right?
This just isn't going to work. If all games are being played at one site, do we really want to sit around while they change out the floors between every game? We've done enough sitting around at this point! This seems like a big waste of time. As cool as they are, we'd get sick of those time-lapse videos of a bunch of wood being replaced by other bunches of wood pretty quickly.
