RealGM

A 80 team worldwide league made up of 2 conferences of 5 divisions each, with 8 teams in each division. This idea is not something I think that could happen, I am warning you in advance, but something that would be cool to see. What if the league one day looked like this! One can only dream. Curious to hear your thoughts on it.

USA CONFERENCE - 29 Existing US NBA Teams + 11 new teams
Pacific Division (Magic Johnson Division)
Los Angeles Clippers, Los Angeles Lakers, Golden State Warriors, Sacramento Kings, Portland Trailblazers
NEW: Seattle SuperSonics, Las Vegas Black Knights, San Diego Surfers

Central Division (John Stockton Division)
Phoenix Suns, Houston Rockets, Dallas Mavericks, San Antonio Spurs, Utah Jazz, Denver Nuggets, Oklahoma City Thunder, New Orleans Pelicans

Midwest Division (Michael Jordan Division)
Chicago Bulls, Milwaukee Bucks, Minnesota Timberwolves, Memphis Grizzlies
NEW: Chicago Windstorm, Nashville Bandits, St. Louis Arcs, Kansas City Colonels

Eastern Division (Reggie Miller Division)
Cleveland Cavaliers, Indiana Pacers, Charlotte Hornets, Atlanta Hawks, Miami Heat, Orlando Magic
NEW: Cincinnati Royals, Pittsburgh Industrials

Atlantic Division (Larry Bird Division)
Boston Celtics, New York Knicks, Brookyln Nets, Detroit Pistons, Philadelphia 76ers, Washington Wizards,
NEW: Baltimore Bullets, Hartford Seamen


WORLD CONFERENCE
Panamerican Division (Steve Nash Division)
Toronto Raptors, Montreal, Vancouver, Sao Paulo, Mexico City, Rio de Janeiro, Santiago, Lima

European Division (Peja Stojakovic Division)
London, Paris, Madrid, Barcelona, Lisbon, Munich, Rome, Athens

African + Middle East Division (Dikembe Mutombo Division)
Cairo, Nairobi, Johannesburg, Cape Town, Dubai, Maccabi Tel Aviv, Qatar, Riyadh

Asian Division (Yao Ming Division)
Moscow, St. Petersburg, Beijing, Hong Kong, Shanghai, Guang Dong, Mumbai, Delhi

Southeastern Division (Andrew Bogut Division)
Bangkok, Singapore, Ho Chi Minh City, Kuala Lumpur, Sydney, Melbourne, Jakarta, Manilla



PLAYOFF FORMAT
Top 2 teams from each division (10 teams) + 8 wild card teams (next best record make playoffs) are eligible:
- Wild card teams face each other in best of 7 series. 1 v 8, 2 v 7, 3 v 6, 4 v 5. Winners of each team move on. 4 losers reseed and face each other, 2 winners of THOSE teams now move on.
- Therefore you are now left with 5 division leaders + 5 2nd place teams + 6 Wild Card Teams. Rank them based on record and do 1 vs 16, 2 vs 15, etc. in a best of 7. Continue until there is a winner.
- Winner from each conference plays 7 game series for World NBA Title in host city that rotates every year. How much more fun would this be! Gets the whole world involved!

[CONFERENCE PLAYOFF FORMAT]

...........................................................................................................Div Leader #1
........................................> WC Loser #2..................................................................> Quarterfinal #1
...................................................................................>------> WC Winner #6
........................................> WC Loser #3.....................................................................................................................> Semifinal #1
...........................................................................................................Div 2nd Plc #3
....................................................................................................................................................> Quarterfinal #8
...........................................................................................................Div 2nd Plc #4
.................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................> Finalist #1
...........................................................................................................Div Leader #4
Wild Card #3 ............................................................................................................> Quarterfinal #2
........................................>-----------------------> WC Winner #3
Wild Card #6.................................................................................................................................................................> Semifinal #4
...........................................................................................................Div Leader #5
Wild Card #2 ............................................................................................................> Quarterfinal #7
........................................>-----------------------> WC Winner #2
Wild Card #7....................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................> CONFERENCE WINNER
...........................................................................................................Div Leader #2
........................................> WC Loser #1..................................................................> Quarterfinal #3
...................................................................................>------> WC Winner #5
........................................> WC Loser #4.....................................................................................................................> Semifinal #2
...........................................................................................................Div 2nd Plc #2
....................................................................................................................................................> Quarterfinal #6
...........................................................................................................Div 2nd Plc #5
.................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................> Finalist #2
...........................................................................................................Div Leader #3
Wild Card #4 ............................................................................................................> Quarterfinal #4
........................................>-----------------------> WC Winner #4
Wild Card #5.................................................................................................................................................................> Semifinal #3
...........................................................................................................Div 2nd Plc #1
Wild Card #1 ............................................................................................................> Quarterfinal #5
........................................>-----------------------> WC Winner #1
Wild Card #8

Please tell us more of the Hartford Seamen

My brain exploded. No. Please no.

Let's just stick to FIBA if we're going to involve the whole world.

jerep_path wrote:My brain exploded. No. Please no.

Let's just stick to FIBA if we're going to involve the whole world.

Why just no? I'm curious to know why?

Would the teams in Europe and China take the place of the Euroleague and CBA teams that exist already? Because if they didn't, it would be kinda hard to get enough skilled European and Asian players spread through both leagues (Worldwide league and Euroleague/CBA).

Seamen

Aren't the NBA champions already called World Champions?

Aren't Lebron James already called the best player in the world?

This. Is. Awesome.

Tell me more about St. Petersburg in the Asian (Yao Ming) Division

One big problem the league has now is that most teams aren't close to contending for a title. Expanding to 64 teams won't increase the # of title contenders, leaving the vast majority of the league in teadmill/tank land.

I actually dont completely disagree with this idea, and dont want to nitpick this, but your divisions need alot of work, the travel is absolutely insane on a normal b-ball schedule.

My personal choice would be to mostly leave leagues as they are (add more as leagues develop world wide), but pit them against each other in a UEFA style system.

You'd be better off developing 4 individual leagues based off 4-6 timezones (Americas, Europe/Africa, West Asia, East Asia/Australia) that have their own finalists qualifying for a world tournament every summer. That lets you start with a European league of 20 teams or so (not an easy feat) that play their own 82 have season and playoffs. Trying to have more than 30-35 franchises in a single league is unwieldy

Bolivar wrote:Tell me more about St. Petersburg in the Asian (Yao Ming) Division

Part of Russia is in the continent of Asia that's why they are in that division

whitesideformip wrote:Would the teams in Europe and China take the place of the Euroleague and CBA teams that exist already? Because if they didn't, it would be kinda hard to get enough skilled European and Asian players spread through both leagues (Worldwide league and Euroleague/CBA).

Yea they would have to take their place in order for their to be enough of a talent pool

For this to work, every team would have to reallocate their players (can't have only NBA guys playing in the USA Conference while international scrubs are in the World Conference

Sofia wrote:Please tell us more of the Hartford Seamen

Lol mature.

It would be something along the lines of this concept, which I borrowed from the Savannah Seamen:



Logo based around an anchor and a very nautical theme. Kind of like what the Clippers SHOULD change to but won't it seems lol

You've put a lot of thought into the inclusions, props to you for that.

But I'd have to agree that the travel requirements would be too extreme for this to be feasible.

As mentioned above, it'd be better implementing a World Championship for the best teams in each league to compete, but let's be honest, the NBA's winner would absolutely annhiliate any international franchise in a best of 7.

nba2k16 wrote:
European Division (Peja Stojakovic Division)
London, Paris, Madrid, Barcelona, Lisbon, Munich, Rome, Athens

So you've got Munich over Cologne and Berlin even though those two cities have an NBA approved/ready arena(and are bigger) while Munich doesn't?

And that's just the arena thing. In Munich the league would have to compete with Bayern Munich, one of the biggest soccer clubs on this planet, who're also having a successfull basketball team(thanks to investing quite some money into it) and rule the city of Munich for at least five decades now.
Good luck trying to make that happen.

I also don't get why Spain would need two teams and it would be the same thing as with Munich, cause Barca and Real certainly wouldn't be jumping for joy if the NBA would just come into their territory.

You can't not have a team in Istanbul. Or for that matter, Belgrade.

P.S. Looking forward to those St. Petersberg/Hong Kong back to backs.