Dear NBA overlords (or whomever this may concern),
On the heels of this latest and most definitive report that Giannis Antetokounmpo is open to playing elsewhere and that the Bucks are listening to offers for their star player, I have but one request: Please keep Giannis in the Eastern Conference.
Here’s where we’re at. The Bucks are taking phone calls and are willing to deal Giannis before next Thursday’s deadline or wait until the offseason. Either way, it looks like Giannis will be playing for a new team by the start of next season.
By my count, that’s two Eastern Conference teams and two Western Conference teams.
While the idea of Giannis playing with Steph Curry or Anthony Edwards is captivating on a smaller scale, Giannis getting traded to the West would be a big-picture disaster for the league.
Why?
The West would have all the star players!
Go through the other top guys: Jokic, Shai, Luka, Wemby, Ant, Steph, Kawhi, Durant, Booker… they all play in the West. Throw LeBron in there. The West’s starpower is megawatts brighter than the East’s.
Sure, stars like Jalen Brunson and Jayson Tatum (eventually) play in the East – but there’s an argument to be made that the big markets they already play in made otherwise very good players into household names.
In terms of sheer star power, the top guys are tipping off at 10 pm ET on school nights. For a new dad and an established basketball sicko like me, this stinks.
On any given day of the week, people on the East Coast have to stay up into the early morning to watch Steph Curry go night-night. Anthony Edwards has hit at least three game-winners this season – all have happened after midnight for us East Coasters. It’s a bummer.
I know this comes off as complaining about time zones because, well, it is.
But there’s also a more important point here – it’s bad for ratings. Observers wonder why NBA ratings are down and this is the main culprit. Not injuries or tanking. It’s that half the country isn’t staying up to watch the star players. The Eastern Conference games feel like a warm-up act for a headliner that the people in the country’s most populated cities don’t get to see.
Adam Silver said it’s a highlight league and this is a big reason why. To watch the stars, most people are just watching the highlights the next day. Giannis alone isn’t enough to save the East, but his departure would be felt.
To be fair, I don’t really care about ratings. To Silver’s point – even if he didn’t communicate it well – those things matter less than ever in a media environment that has never been more splintered.
However, there’s also a basketball reason why Giannis shouldn’t jump conferences. For someone who has talked about championships over everything, it’s a lot easier to do that in the East.
As Giannis told the New York Times in 2023, competing for titles is more important than being a Buck for life.
"But at the end of the day, being a winner, it's over that goal," he said. "Winning a championship comes first. I don't want to be 20 years on the same team and don't win another championship."
ESPN’s Brian Windhorst made a good point during a TV appearance on Thursday morning:
"I would prioritize staying in the East,” Windhorst said on First Take. “I would be wanting to stay in the Eastern Conference and look at a place like Miami that might not have that perfect setup, but would be able to be in the East and build around him.”
Yes! The Miami Heat!
Obviously, the homer in me loves this idea. From Shaquille O’Neal to LeBron James to Jimmy Butler, the Heat have a track record of maximizing star players and helping them compete for championships.
But I’d also take Giannis in New York, playing at Madison Square Garden. Or in Chicago, trying to resuscitate Michael Jordan’s franchise.
For Giannis, competing for another ring is far easier in the East than it would be in the West, where he’d have to go through teams like the Thunder, Nuggets, Spurs, Timberwolves and Rockets (probably multiple of them) just to make it to the conference finals. The East offers a path of much less resistance and access to major markets where he could become an even greater success in terms of star power, accomplishments, and accolades.
Are these the words of a big-market elitist and sleep-deprived parent? You bet they are.
More than anything, though, they’re also the words of someone who chooses to root for greatness. I genuinely want to see great players play for things that matter. The West is becoming a conference that threatens to cannibalize greatness before it reaches the precipice. Instead, it’s a zero-sum cage match that forces the NBA’s top stars to fight it out for a piece of cheese. Thrilling for those nightowls willing to stay up and watch, not so much for the majority of us.
In the West, Giannis becomes another soldier falling back into the march to the playoffs. In the East, he could dominate. He already has. Let’s just hope the Bucks’ roster falling apart around him doesn’t turn the Giannis experience into watching highlights.
