As the NBA season winds down in March, and teams poised for the playoffs begin their preparation early, NBA fans are left to deal with a period of time which often becomes unentertaining and null. By the latter half of March playoff positioning is usually decided given a few rare exceptions. This year, the top seeds in each conference were clinched early, and the entire Western conference playoff picture is all but cemented in place. The only real race for a playoff berth is for the 8th spot in the Eastern Conference; a four-way battle between Boston, Brooklyn, Charlotte, and Indiana to see who will lose to Atlanta in the first round. This type of non-meaning to the sports last regular season month has led more and more coaches to adapt a Greg Popovich strategy of resting star players in games. In recent weeks, teams such as Memphis and Chicago have followed the Spur's example and rested players in preparation of the postseason.
This is a major issue in the product that the NBA is presenting to it's fans. The NBA season becomes stale in its last stages, causing many fans to lose interest. In the past two weekends, ABC has set a new five-year low for its Sunday Nationally broadcasted games. This type of drop is due to the fact that the NBA season in many ways has become a preseason. A preseason that is, for what actually matters. A casual fan would be hard-pressed to tune in for for a mid-march game between the Spurs and the Cavaliers in which Lebron James, Kevin Love, Tim Duncan, and Tony Parker are all sitting out in because simply put, that game doesn't mean anything. Regardless of the star power that the league can promote for a regular season game, once the playoffs begin that game will become utterly meaningless. There is a lack of parody in the NBA that allows fans to know contenders from the moment the season tips off. What the NBA owes to its fans is to shorten its season. Eliminate the benign regular season games and allow the momentum of the early season to translate into the playoffs. While this is unlikely to gain traction due to the disputable claim that the league would lose revenue, it would make the game much more intriguing to casual and hardcore fans alike by providing them with the best possible product.
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