Mark Cuban Says ‘Everyone’ On Board With NBA In July
By Phil Watson
There used to be a much clearer delineation of sports seasons on the calendar. But if Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban is correct and there is as much support for a plan to push the NBA season further into the summer, those lines will blur just a bit more.
Cuban told ESPN Dallas that the NBA is considering pushing games back into July as a means of reducing, or possibly even eliminating, the back-to-back games players hate so much.
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That would also help in reducing the strain on players from playing three games in four nights, four games in five nights or five games in seven nights.
The schedule length itself wouldn’t change—it would remain at 82 regular-season games with up to 28 playoff games—but the length on the calendar would change significantly.
“I’d rather us go later in the season into July,” Cuban said. “Used to be, we had to be concerned about baseball. Now we don’t. Baseball, particularly from a media perspective, has become regional, so it doesn’t negatively impact us from a national TV perspective to go late.”
Cuban also favors shortening the preseason. Another possibility that has been discussed to lengthen the rest periods between games is to shorten the preseason and start the season earlier.
Commissioner Adam Silver, for his part, didn’t seem as enthused about the NBA on Independence Day as was Cuban when he discussed the schedule issue during the All-Star break.
“The question is towards the end of this season, can we push a little bit further in June closer to the draft?” Silver said. “I think there had been discussions … well, I wouldn’t characterize them as discussions. I’ve heard proposals about them moving The Finals past the Fourth of July.
“Generally the view has been on addition [that] it just feels out of sync once you get into the summer. Historically those haven’t been viewed as the best television nights, once you get into July, and just in terms of households watching TV.
“I will say maybe that’s something we should look at, too. If we’re truly going to take a fresh look at this, we have to examine what the appropriate time is to begin the season and when we should end it.”
Some history
In 1947, the first year of the Basketball Association of America—the forerunner of the present-day NBA, the deciding Game 6 of the Finals was played on April 22. The National Basketball League championship series had wrapped up on April 9.
Of course, the BAA played a 60-game regular season with two best-of-3 quarterfinals and a best-of-3 semifinal played in conjunction with a best-of-7 semifinal series between the two division winners—because apparently in 1947 the thought of actually setting up your postseason so your two best teams could, you know, play for the title, was a foreign concept.
The NBL in 1946-47 played a 44-game schedule, then had divisional opening round series that were best-of-5, division semifinals that were best-of-3 (yeah, I don’t get that either) and a championship series played as a best-of-5.
In 1956, the NBA Finals wrapped up on April 7 when the Philadelphia Warriors closed out the Fort Wayne Pistons in five games, the earliest conclusion in league history—10 days before the Major League Baseball season opened on April 17.
But things began to creep in the late 1960s. Game 6 of the 1968 NBA Finals between the Boston Celtics and Los Angeles Lakers was significant not just because it was Boston’s 10th title in 12 seasons, but that it was the first NBA game ever played in the month of May (May 2).
The following season, the same two teams played in two NBA Finals games (Game 6 and Game 7) that set new records for the latest date ever for the NBA game—May 3 for Game 6, with Game 7 on May 5.
The New York Knicks clinched their first-ever title with a Game 7 win over the Lakers on May 8, 1970.
The last time an NBA season ended in April was 1971, when the Milwaukee Bucks swept the NBA Finals over the Baltimore Bullets, wrapping Game 4 on April 30.
By 1973, the Finals didn’t even have to go seven games to set a new record—the Knicks’ win over the Lakers to wrap up the title in five games was played on May 10.
In 1975, with an extra tier of playoffs added, a four-game sweep in the NBA Finals didn’t conclude until the Golden State Warriors beat the Washington Bullets on May 25.
The following year, June basketball became a thing as the Celtics and Phoenix Suns played the last three games of a six-game NBA Finals in June, wrapping up things on June 6.
Things did recede a bit in 1980, when the Lakers closed out the Philadelphia 76ers in Game 6 of the Finals on May 16. But that series included something that would never happen in today’s NBA–back-to-back games in the Finals. Games 3 and 4 were played on consecutive days in Philadelphia, a Saturday and Sunday.
By 1982, however, the Finals were back into June. With the exception of 1983, when the 76ers swept the Lakers in the Finals with Game 4 played on May 31, the NBA Finals have ended in June each year.
The issues
Pushing the NBA schedule back into July, as a means of eliminating or severely curtailing, the number of times teams play on consecutive days is—in a vacuum—a terrific idea.
Teams this season are playing those back-to-back games between 16 and 20 times. With injuries being such a focus in the news, it makes sense that allowing for more recovery time between games should, in theory, reduce that risk.
But the realities of playing the NBA Finals in July are complicated because everything has to be pushed back.
The draft is normally held on the last Thursday in June. If the NBA Finals are just starting, that’s not going to happen. So now we’re looking at an NBA Draft being held in mid- to late-July.
The end of the league year, currently July 1, would likely be pushed back to Aug. 1, with free agency taking the spotlight in August and competing for press attention with the beginning of the NFL preseason.
The summer league would likely also have to be pushed into August.
And that doesn’t address the elephant in the room—whither USA Basketball and, by extension, the international basketball community as a whole.
Anyone who has followed the game knows where Cuban is on the issue of international participation by NBA players—if he could end it today, he would. His logic isn’t wrong—the NBA clubs take on all the risk, while FIBA and USA Basketball reap all the rewards—but it’s not a popular or patriotic point of view.
I really couldn’t care less about the international basketball scene—I lost interest after legendary Georgetown coach John Thompson (the father of the current Georgetown coach) set the wheels in motion for the Olympics becoming a professional tournament by taking the wrong guys to Seoul in 1988.
But I also understand that mine is very much a minority opinion on that subject. The NBA players in international competition train left the station more than 20 years ago and there is—to mix metaphors violently—no putting the toothpaste back in the tube at this point.
However, a later end date for the NBA season could create some legitimate logistical problems for international competitions such as the FIBA World Cup and the various Olympic, FIBA and continental qualifying tournaments.
The conclusion
Is it doable? Of course it is. I’m old enough to remember hearing the howls of outrage 40 years ago over the idea of NBA basketball in June.
The NBA survived. Hell, it’s thrived, if one is to judge by the fact we no longer watch the NBA Finals on tape delay after the late local news.
Neither the players nor the owners will back away from 82 games because of the accompanying loss of cash from the pocket.
So the entire question boils down to one simple question—would the players rather have a longer summer vacation or fewer back-to-backs?
Getting both is a logistical impossibility at this point.
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