how the east was won, or at least saved

With all the draft/trade rumors, the Oden vs. Durant question, and Kobe bringing the whining level back up to annoying status, there's a lot going on. Simmons stated recently that the offeseason of the NBA is attracting more attention than the actual season. That's bad. And it's true. For NBA junkies like us, the draft and trade season are always exciting, but when normal fans care about them more than the playoffs, well, that's no good. Diehards love the NFL draft, but not as much as the season, and normal fans don't pay too much attention.

Most people blame the lackluster finals and the imbalance of conferences. Everyone is throwing around ideas for realignments and other proposals. As we all know, the West is much better and it's staying that way, thanks to the lottery, and horrible front offices in the east. There isn't much on the immediate horizon for the East right now.... so...

Do any of these supposed plans work? Here are some ideas:

1. Reseed the playoffs 1-16, regardless of conference.

2. Simmons' extravagant solution: give the top six teams in each conference a spot and a first round bye. Seed those 12 teams like this: conference leader 1, other conference leader 2, then just by records. Have a double-elimination tournament with the remaining 9 teams in each conference. Winners get the last two seeds. Crazy NCAA type brackets ensue.

3. Create two coast-to-coast conferences, like the NFL and MLB have. Then you don't have to rely on weaker teams, east or west... though, just like those leagues, one could still be better than the other. You could divide them up betwen cities, and maybe classic teams. Here's one example I had:

AMERICAN CONFERENCE
New York, Boston, Washington, Atlanta, Miami

Detroit, Cleveland, Milwaukee, Dallas, New Orleans

LA Clippers, Golden State, Seattle, Denver, Phoenix

NATIONAL CONFERENCE

New Jersey, Philadelphia, Orlando, Charlotte, Toronto

Chicago, Minnesota, Houston, Indiana, Memphis

LA Lakers, Portland, Sacramento, Utah, San Antonio

... and so forth. It's a basic plan that could be changed. But the idea is that, like baseball, the divisions are made into leagues, with teams from all over.

4. My not so radical idea: consolidate 2 or 4 teams, have two large conferences or maybe 4 medium divisions.

5. Conspiracy theorsits like this idea: that David Stern fixes it so Kobe, KG, and others go eastbound, helping the imbalance himself.

So here's the chances of any of these five scenarios happening: ZERO. Look, Stern knows that the East sucks, but he's not going to realign anything. The first plan isn't fair, because the East records are unfairly meaured against the stronger west. Besides, if that or the other first three plans happen, guess what the finals are? Phoenix - San Antonio. Maybe Dallas, if they never had to face Golden State, could be in there. But that's it. If the NBA changes its system, they could end up with a finale involving two smaller Western markets. Will that help ratings?

Now, ironically, that Phoenix - San Antonio series was great. It would have made an exciting finals. It was, in all honesty, the de facto finals this year; we all knew whoever won that would get the title easily. And they did. But suppose that was the series that ABC had to promote in June... do they want to have Phoenix and San Antonio as the last two teams remaining? Does this really help the ratings that much? Does anyone on the East coast care?

Stern knows that keeping the system as it is guarantees that one of the major Eastern media markets is likely to make it to the end. He'd love to have it be Knicks-Lakers, but since that's not happening, I think he'd rather have Heat-Mavs again than Suns-Spurs. It would be nice if people expected the Eastern representative to actually do something. Ironically, as much better as the West has been for the entire decade, two teams (Detroit and Miami) managed to catch fire in the playoffs and win it all. That helped. But now, no one expects it anymore.

Interesting that baseball had a similar problem when they made the new World Series schedule. Many people have complained that, in the East, the games come on way too late. They don't end until midnight. Baseball, many have figured, is banking on the loyalty of the diehard East coast fans to stay up and watch, while making things easier for those on the West coast, who are less passionate. They think, allegedly, that this system will get the most viewers on both sides. But many are tuning it out anyway.

Now...

If the World Series, one of the oldest traditions in sports we have, is starting to worry about viewership, you can better believe that Stern is fretting over his post-MJ product. He's not going to take those East coast crazies for granted like baseball is. He's going to make sure one Eastern team is included. The NBA finals aren't as big or traditional as the Series, and certainly not the Super Bowl. They can't afford to say, "Well, we don't care who plays in the big game, people will watch. It's the championship." Nope. They know better. That is why Stern will reject any major realignment plan.

As for my idea... I'm hoping Stern considers slicing teams. He probably doesn't want the disgrace of being the first commissioner in many years to actually get rid of teams (Selig probably almost did it and maybe should have, but refused to, for similar reasons). But I think that would help. Who knows. If Atlanta, Charlotte, and Memphis can turn a profit (and Seattle and New Orleans are satisfied where they are), I guess I can't say anything.