June Madness?

Imagine how great the NBA playoffs would be if they opened it up to a tournament style format like the ‘amateurs’ do every March.

Imagine if every team in the NBA could play only a handful of games outside of their conference—all at the beginning of the year—then compete only against teams in their own region until the playoff tournament begins.

Then a 16-20 team tournament (throw a few byes in there if needed) commences and it’s all one-and-done until the final four, where the teams would play best 2 out of 3.

Imagine how good the play in the NBA would be if every playoff game had a game 7 feel to it?

They always say ‘the best two words in sports: Game seven.’

Which is especially true in basketball.

It’s where guys like Reggie Miller put a mark on their name that will last throughout sports history.

Imagine if game seven was Sacramento against the Lakers in Round 1? One game. You’re telling me the Kings wouldn’t be fired up and have a chance to win that game? You think the Lakers wouldn’t be scared about a one game anything-can-happen scenario?

In the NBA, the eight seed always shows up knowing there’s no way they’ll beat the one seed in a best of seven series. The one seed always knows they can have an off night or two and it won’t hurt them.

It’s bogus.

Let’s make every team put all their chips in the middle every night. No taking nights off.

The best sports fan viewership experiences come when the pressure is on. That’s why game 7’s always get the highest ratings.

It’s also why the Super Bowl, the college football playoffs, the NCAA tournament, and the MLB wild card playoff games are so popular.

Single elimination.

Any loser-goes-home game in sports always gets the highest ratings.

It would be so nice to see the NBA—allegedly home to the best athletes in the world—have to face that sort of pressure every year come postseason time.