The silly, long-standing tyranny of division winners will soon come to an end, according to NBA Commissioner Adam Silver.
The Commish, speaking Tuesday following a Board of Governors pow-wow in Las Vegas, says the League will determine Playoff seeding per conference based solely on regular season wins and losses.
Silver also addressed the looming labor war between team owners and their players; admitted that the DeAndre Jordan free agency debacle was an embarrassment for everyone; said Hack-a-Shaq is basically here to stay; mentioned that the NBA is working to protect players from cameras around the court; and threw Milwaukee Bucks fans a bone by stating that, despite the front-office’s threats, his “hope is that team is not going to relocate.”
Per the AP:
After meeting with the league’s Board of Governors on those and other topics Tuesday, NBA Commissioner Adam Silver said that — as expected — the league is leaning toward eliminating any protection for division winners in playoff seeding going forward and instead placing the eight teams on the Eastern and Western Conference brackets based solely by record. […] “It’s my expectation that that change will be adopted before the beginning of this coming season,” Silver said.
The league has an annual window starting July 1 where deals can be agreed to, but not finalized while the salary numbers and other financial matters for the coming year are being crunched. And it got tons of attention this year when DeAndre Jordan committed to the Dallas Mavericks, then changed his mind and stayed with the Los Angeles Clippers. […] “I’m not sure it was his proudest moment either,” Silver said. […] “It was not a great look,” Silver said. “It’s not what we want to see happen in the moratorium period. It wasn’t created so players could enter into in essence oral agreements only to have those agreements superseded by binding agreements. Of course, under our collective bargaining agreement, there’s no dispute that only a signed agreement is binding. But there was a breakdown in the system to a certain extent.”
Ratings for NBA games don’t show that people aren’t watching because of Hack-a-Anyone. And it might serve as a signal to young players about the importance of making foul shots. […] “There is a sense, especially from the basketball people, that it would be sending the wrong message to the larger basketball community — particularly youth basketball — to de-emphasize the need for guys to hit free throws,” Silver said.
