Don’t expect LeBron James to be among those lobbying on behalf of a potential play-in tournament for a postseason berth. The NBA has reportedly kicked the idea around in a couple different variations, but James said today that he’s not a fan of the concept, as Dave McMenamin of ESPN.com details.
“No, no, no,” James said. “That’s wack. That’s wack. Why? You got to earn your spot to be in the postseason. No consolation for finishing last. That’s corny. That’s corny. That’s wack. To play for what? What are they playing for?”
While there’s a belief in some league circles that a play-in tournament at the end of the regular season to determine the seventh and eighth seeds in each conference would generate some drama, James is a firm believer that the eight teams with the best records in each conference deserve to make the playoffs.
“[Make the playoffs by winning the tournament], even if my record is better than yours? Nah, that’s wack,” James said.
Here are more odds and ends from around the basketball world:
- Appearing on ESPN’s The Jump on Tuesday, Chauncey Billups called a report about the Pistons expressing interest in him for a front office role “100% false,” per Rod Beard of The Detroit News. “I haven’t spoken to anybody with the organization about the possibility,” Billups said. Still, this isn’t the first time Billups has been linked to a front office job — if the former NBA guard does land somewhere as an executive, former Pistons assistant GM George David would be a candidate to potentially join him, tweets Vince Ellis of The Detroit Free Press.
- Nine NBA teams have been officially eliminated from the postseason. While the 2017/18 season has been a fairly forgettable one for those clubs, Kevin O’Connor of The Ringer highlights some silver linings worth mentioning.
- Over at ESPN.com (Insider link), Kevin Pelton and Bobby Marks have updated their future NBA power rankings, which consider each team’s outlook through the 2020/21 season. Unsurprisingly, the Warriors, Celtics, and Rockets still top their list, with the Sixers and Raptors jumping into the top five.
I don’t really care what the eighth seed has to do to get into the playoffs, because they shouldn’t be in the playoffs in the first place.
So you want 7 teams?
Or 6 or 5. If the pairing is uneven, the lower seeded teams can play each other while the top ones get a bye.
Seeing the 7th and 8th seeds play the best teams in the playoffs is a drag every year. They always suck and they always look like it.
No one with a losing record should ever make the playoffs. I know it doesn’t happen often, but drop it to six teams and it will never happen.
Also teams can play better than their record indicates. Like the Miami Heat last year, who won like 30 games after the all star break last year but just started the year really bad. I’d have liked to see them get the 8 spot last year instead of the Bulls.
The league would lose so much revenue going from a 16 team postseason to 12. So they’d never do that and without the 1v8 matchup you’d never get Golden State upsetting the Mavs in 2007.
Didn’t the 76ers (8th seed) beat the bulls(1st seed) I like seeing under dogs in
Plenty of that during the LONG regular season.