Good Playoffs, Shorter Seasons

Watching the NBA playoffs, one wonders why bother with the regular season?  Of course, you need the regular season to figure out who makes the playoffs.  But it's striking - and obviously obvious - to see how much better the play is in the post season.

Both series are pretty compelling; the young Thunder led by arguably the best scorer since Michael Jordan taking on a Spurs team that is professional and compelling, and the old guard Celtics led by young gun/old soul Rajon Rondo taking on the must see TV that is LaBron James and the Heat.

The NBA should consider institutionalizing the 66-game, lock-out induced schedule.  Like all leagues, the NBA regular season is too, too long at 82 games (the only exception to this is college basketball, whose 30 game schedule capped by a tournament seems about as perfect as 90 feet between the bases*).  There are too many bad NBA teams - thanks mainly to expansion - to waste our time watching.  Shorten the season, and put us and hapless teams like our hometown Wizards out of our collective misery sooner than later.

But the playoffs are a different story. The level of play is fantastic, as is the effort.

That, along with wanting to see who wins,  is what really stands out for me watching these playoffs.  Effort.

One stereotype about the NBA is that players don't play hard for four quarters or that defense is an afterthought. Watching the playoffs should dispel both of those lazy analyses. 

In the playoffs, every shot is contested. And that's true for the first shot of the game and especially the last.  You can feel the defensive intensity oozing from your TV screen.

The effort extends both ways.  It was pretty compelling to watch Rajon Rondo play 53 minutes - 53! - and make shot after shot in a losing cause.  It was inspiring stuff. 

Ditto Manu Ginobili or James Harden as they recklessly and repeatedly attack the hoop, or Kevin Garnett go down low - though he hates it - to exploit Miami's lack of a big man.  Or watch Kevin Durant patiently wait for the game come to him then simply blow up and take over, as he did last night.

Anyway, check it out.  It's the playoffs after all not the regular season - inspiring stuff.

A few more sports notes:

• What else is inspiring? Watching Stephen Strasburg bounce back from 3 consecutive average outings, only one of which he actually pitched badly BTW, with seven innings of shut out ball, with 9 strike outs and no walks to boot.  Not only was it great to see him dominate yesterday and lay to rest rumors of a tired arm or similar post-Tommy John surgery problems, Strasburg did what number one pitchers do on a contending team - he slammed the door on a 3-game losing streak.  
• We're heading to Nats Park in about an hour for Evan's annual birthday party game with his crew.  Excellent weather, an excellent celebration - and we get Gio Gonzalez on the bump.

* Schedules

Back to scheduling for one more second.  On one level, it's easy to understand the main reason why owners and TV execs in particular would oppose shortened seasons: fewer games to sell tickets and TV rights.  

But shortened seasons would benefit all four of the major leagues (baseball, basketball, football and soccer; I do not consider a sport that penalizes players 5 minutes a game for fighting a major sport; you ball your fist in any of the real major leagues and you get suspended 5 GAMES - as it should be. Grow up NHL.)

Expansion has greatly diluted talent pools for all the sports, as has the simple explosions of sports and leagues.  The larger number of teams in each league is one - but not the main - reason you see so many foreign players in all the leagues not named the NFL.


One way to minimize the impact of a diluted talent pool is to player few games.  A shorter season in all the leagues would help immeasurably.  Or, measurably.

• It would help cover the lack of pitching depth in the majors.  If MLB went to the old 154-game schedule teams could experiment for 4-man rotations, need fewer pitchers in general, and baseball can get rid of the asterisks that go along with comparing records in the pre and post-162 game era.   And, with baseball expanding it's post season a shorter season would ensure that the Fall Classic is completed before November.  Baseball is already a grind; why not make it a little less grindier?
• We've already discussed the NBA.  A shorter season gets us to what we want to watch - the playoffs - sooner.  No one pays attention to the NBA any way until after March Madness anyway. Start the season like the NBA did this year - with a Christmas Day triple header (which was awesome, BTW).  Let the NFL have Thanksgiving, the NBA can take Christmas.
• The MLS season already makes no sense, interrupted with side competitions, national team games, etc. and spanning from who knows when to who knows why. They should go back to the traditional world football schedule of games from October to May; MLS is afraid of competing with the NFL for fields and attention.  But with teams getting their own venues that is no longer a problem. And the NFL only plays once a week; MLS should shoot for the other six days and play a shorter season, too. Like the NBA, the MLS playoffs are usually more compelling that a numbingly boring 0-0 tie played in August during the regular season.   
• In an earlier post I pontificated on how to fix college football, including a shorter season, and try to restore the balance between being a student and athlete.
• But the NFL is most in need of a shorter season.  In the old days, when I first started watching the NFL, they played a 12-game season. It's now ballooned to an abusive 18-game schedules that wears out bodies faster and faster. In an era with heightened concerns over head injuries and an epidemic of debilitating injuries, doesn't it make sense to expose the players to fewer risks via fewer games?  The NFL will still make boatloads of money thanks to their lucrative television deals.  The least they could do is shorten their employees' exposure to life altering traumas by playing fewer games (and giving out guaranteed contracts).