Should they eliminate the back-to-backs in the National Basketball Association? Should they do away with Thursday Night Football in the National Football League?
The commissioners of both leagues know that the true and honest answer to both of those questions is “yes,” but, they want to maximize the amount of money that they make throughout the seasons.
That’s all that this comes down to. Commissioner Adam Silver of the NBA wants to squeeze as many games into the regular season as he can and NFL commissioner Roger Goodell just wants to schedule as many primetime games as possible.
My recommendation to Commissioner Silver and the NBA : Player’s health and the satisfaction of your fans is more important than a few extra dollars, and, if you are greedy, you will end up with less.
Gregg Popovich started a trend that is ideal from a basketball standpoint but is hated by fans. Popovich and the San Antonio Spurs have created a mindset that includes resting the superstar players so that they are rested for the playoffs, which is unfair to the fans who were unlucky enough to purchase tickets to the game that the superstars didn’t play in.
And Tyronn Lue of the Cleveland Cavaliers has adopted that concept, which ignited the conversation about the scheduling of the NBA season.
There’s an easy way to fix this problem, but, NBA has to accept that they are going to have to lose money to gain money.
If the NBA took the schedule and reduced it from 82 games to 65 games, they would be able to eliminate the back-to-backs and the scenarios where teams play two games in three nights or three in four.
Plus, it would make each game a little bit more valuable and something that players would want to win a little bit more than the regular season games now, which would keep the coaches from being tempted to rest star players.
When the fans know that the superstars are going to play and every player will play hard, they would want to go to the games even more, a situation that is more economical for the NBA
As for the NFL, except for the Thanksgiving tradition, I believe that they would be better off getting rid of the Thursday night games and begin the week Saturday night.
This would only take a day away from a team’s normal week of practice and rest and would be more economical for the NFL.
Players like Ben Roethlisberger of the Pittsburgh Steelers have claimed that they don’t feel fully recovered until at least 24 hours after a game. In other words, when a team has a game on a Sunday and then one on Thursday, they are only fully practicing on Tuesday, as a hard practice the day before a football game risks fatigue and soreness on game day.
Though this would eliminate the Thursday Night Football tradition, it would allow the NFL to have a trio of primetime games on national television every week and it would even help increase the number of people who watch these games.
Thursday Night Football may feature a series of competitive games, but, they are on so late and it is hard for those who work or go to school to watch the games, which decreases the ratings.
Both players and fans of the NBA and NFL would benefit from a new format to the schedule.
