If you were NBA Commissioner for a day...

[CatchNShoot]

What would you do? Just curious.

[jambalaya]

Some of these couldn't be done because of the CBA but what would I want to do?

Make it a 4 on 4 game (court is too crowded),

provide a deeper under the basket baseline,

shorten the court a bit (quicker conversion of fast break opportuniites)

3pts for dunks,

cut rosters to 10-12,

tell officials to cut low significance foul calls for a cut of at least 25% from current average,

teams get 2 more timeouts and a couple extra minutes between quarters to give the best players more rest and allow them to play a greater portion of the game,

change the rule to require 2/3rds approval on relocation requests,

require teams to share a portion of local-tv revenue for greater revenue equity in the league,

cut preseason to 4 games,

start season 2-4 weeks earlier (spacing games out a little),

go back to 5 game series for 1st round of playoffs,

make the rim slightly bigger (to improve scoring),

expand the league to 32-36 teams,

fire Stu Jackson,

appoint a former player to be Senior Consultant to the Commissioner,

double or triple pension payments to the real old-timers,

threaten to cut all ties with Basketball.Hall of Fame unless voting procedures are changed, disclosed and made to work better inducting deserving NBA stars unfairly excluded so far,

seek to cut max salary by at least 25% in next CBA,

establish a true B-league in the same city as NBA teams with team owning the rights to all their players and being able to assign NBA contracts there to a degree but allowing other teams to buy the rights to some non-draft or otherwise "protected" players for a fee,

double WNBA salaries,

appoint a National Fan Advisory board with 2 representatives from every city to meet 2-3 times a year and make recommendations,

seek to cut max contract length to 4 years,

change trade rules to allow trades within 33% on salary plus one exception to do a trade beyond that rule once per team every 2 years,

and maybe some other stuff
but that would be a good start.
In my view.

[Sonics3408]

tell officials to cut low significance foul calls for a cut of at least 25% from current average
...
fire Stu Jackson

After reading through your post, I started feeling nauseous, but these looked okay.

[jenn_gp]

=
go back to 5 game series for 1st round of playoffs

I agree with this one. It was exciting the first year, now it's just too dragged out.

[Ex-hippie]

I would make up for the rigged 1985 lottery. In particular, the teams that picked 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th in 1985 will all probably be in the lottery again in 2008; I would have those teams pick 4th, 3rd, 2nd, and 1st, respectively, to redress this past injustice.

[bennith13]

I disagree with just about everything jambalaya posted. I am sure most of you will disagree with me as well.

1. Cut the season back to 62 games. 82 games is to many. Players can not sustain focus and desire every game for 82 games. Having less games means that the fans get to see a good game every time... 62 still might be too many games.

2. Extend the shot clock to 35 seconds. Right now teams do not have enough time to run a real offense. Everything has to be a quick hitter, or a high pick and roll. Allowing for a team to have the ball longer one each possession allows for coaches to be more creative and aids to more of a team feel because there actually will be time for more then two players to touch the ball before a shot has to go up.

3. Widen the court. There is about two feet from the three point line to out of bounds on the corners. Players are bigger, faster, stronger then ever before and the court should reflect that.

4. Change the CBA. Either get ride of the cap or make it a hard cap like football. Personally I think the best idea would be to have a hybrid of the two. Maybe sometime where the cap is at like 70 million but it is a hard cap where you can not go over the cap. No guaranteed contracts so you could cut players who got fat/lazy. Signing bonus money would be guaranteed though and if you cut a player the remaining bonus money would go against the cap in the next year. However, there would be no restrictions on trades. So theoretically you could trade someone who makes 20 million for someone who makes 1 million.

5. Get a TV deal with NBC again and make sure that every Sunday morning 4 good teams are showcased. Never have games on NBATV ever again. Makes sure that games are accessible as possible.

6. Allow teams to play any kind of defense they want. Zone, man, Box n' one... whatever. No defensive three in the key. Teams can do as much or as little as they want. Coaches will then be free to coach and be creative again. This also forces teams to actually be teams and not just individuals.

7. Get rid of touch/hand checking fouls out on the perimeter. Refs are to involved in the games right now. They slow the game down and make it impossible to watch. Free up the game by call less silly fouls.

Thats it for now. I might think of some more later.

[Argyle]

Some of these have already been mentioned...

Dismiss Clay Bennnet on ethics violations

Cut down on number of fouls players get before getting DQ. Make it 5 instead of 6, meaning you can't just put in bigs for the sake of fouling the other team. Also would see more bench players getting significant playing time, making more of a team game as opposed to individuals.

On the flip side of the above argument, get away from hand check fouls and other wussy crap.

Automatic technical foul for flopping (here's looking at you, manu)

Quit bailing out superstars who get a trip to the line every time they drive

30 sec shot clock

Free defense

Cut down on TV timeouts, making a more free flowing game.

Cut down on team timeouts.

Have a series featuring the NBA champs vs the Euroleague champs to determine the true "world" champions

Increase wages in the D league (right now the league min is $12,000)

Dont expand for at least 10 years.

Implement more stringent relocation procedures.

Here's an interesting one... propose an option for league sanctioned venues. The NBA is rolling in dough, they can't splurge for their own arenas and potentially turn yearly profit by using it for non NBA activities on non-game days?

Add a 4th referee. The game is way to fast for these short, old, white guys to keep up with.

Agree with Bennith here... make games MORE ACCESSIBLE. Any exposure is good exposure in the entertainment business.

Fix the CBA that makes it so hard to build dynasties. Every sport needs a Yankees or Manchester Utd to hate. It makes the league more interesting.

BUT, for a counter argument, make a hard cap where you CANNOT go over, even if youre willing to pay a "luxury tax". (Luxury tax belongs in Monopoly, not the NBA)

[Dick Tate]

I'd try to sleep with Christine Gregoire and hope I impressed her enough that she'd be willing to go to the mat for the Sonics.

[Argyle]

I'd try to sleep with Christine Gregoire and hope I impressed her enough that she'd be willing to go to the mat for the Sonics.

pssst shes a lesbian

[Ex-hippie]

-= original quote snipped =-




pssst shes a lesbian

Or she'll become one after Dick Tate is finished with her.

Zing! I Zinged you, m'boy!

[Dick Tate]

I kinda wonder about my ex sometimes as well.

[BenjaminH]

3. Widen the court. There is about two feet from the three point line to out of bounds on the corners. Players are bigger, faster, stronger then ever before and the court should reflect that.

Once I heard a commentator mention that this was discussed, but there was resistance from owners because it would take away expensive seats.

I would also add that the court should be lengthened. It could be lengthened overall, but I think it may also be a good idea to extend the area between the baseline and the basket by about a foot.

[jambalaya]

Good to see the other ideas and I understand disagreement with a number of mine. Some were ideas I believe strongly in, some I put out for at least study and could be persuaded it isn't worthwhile in the end.

[jambalaya]

Just a brief followup...
at a recent sport management conference in Boston
"Rick Carlisle tossed around some ideas to make the game more exciting, including a slightly bigger basket. Other things that were at least mentioned, but not necessarily advocated, were a bigger court, four on four,..."

[big L]

1. Drop 20 games from the season.
2. I would cut Memphis, Charlotte, and the Clippers. I originally thought about axing four teams, but I didn't have the heart to chop the Hornets. More quality players to go around.
3. I would make the first round of the playoffs best of three, the second best of 5 and the semis and finals best of seven.

[elbowthrower]

Hmmm ...

I'd fire David Stern and ban him permanently.

Cut back on penalties for hard fouls and fighting.

I like the widen the court and bigger rims ideas.

Allow cities/counties/municipalities to buy teams.

Get rid of guaranteed contracts but allow teams to pay a yearly stipend to injured players over time w/o it affecting the salary cap.

Put more satellite NBDL teams in suburbs, like the MLB farm system.

[wiff]

Lets see "If you were NBA Commissioner for a day..."

I'd go on a 24hour self mutilation binge. Then I'd tattoo my face.

Say hello to the new David Stern!

[nesta]

Somehow keep the Sonics in Seattle