I'm always game for fun, creative, and new ideas for sports. Sports are supposed to be fun, and far too often those in charge take it way too seriously.
Refusing to tinker and make changes to the sport until they absolutely have to do it.
No league aims for fun, creative, new ideas more than the National Basketball Association. The NBA is set to hold its first play-in tournament to the NBA postseason on Tuesday night.
The rules for the play-in tournament are perfect, not just for the NBA, but for the National Hockey League as well.
Here's how it works:
In each conference there are two matchups. The regular season 7-seed versus the 8-seed, and the 9-seed versus the 10-seed. No series, just one game.
The winner of the 7 vs. 8 game advances to the NBA playoffs as the playoff 7-seed. The loser will play the winner of the 9 vs. 10 game to earn the last available playoff spot.
LeBron James and the Los Angeles Lakers, as the regular season 7-seed, have to lose two games to miss the 2021 NBA Playoffs. Meanwhile, the San Antonio Spurs, as the 10-seed, have to win two games to make the playoffs.
The format is a perfect combination of content creation, exciting games with everything on the line, while also still giving the seven and eight seeds a big advantage.
A dream matchup fell in the NBA's lap for their first play-in tournament, with the Lakers matched up with Steph Curry and the Golden State Warriors on Thursday night in the 7 vs. 8 game in the Western Conference.
This playoff format makes even more sense for the NHL.
While the NBA is typically the more progressive, forward thinking league, the NHL has not been afraid to try new changes to their sport like the shootout.
Unlike the NBA, the 7 and 8 seeds in the Stanley Cup Playoffs typically have a good chance to not only pull an upset in the first round, but even go on a deep playoff run.
Just in the 2019 Stanley Cup Playoffs, the Carolina Hurricanes and Columbus Blue Jackets, who finished seventh and eight in the Eastern Conference in points, won three playoff rounds between the two teams.
A 7- or 8-seed has not won a series in the NBA since 2012.
In fact, since the 2000, there have been just four series wins in the NBA by 7 and 8-seeds. For comparison, there have been 38 in the NHL in that same time span.
The NHL, of all the four major sports, has the most parity, where any given team in the playoffs can make noise.
The NBA has supplied the idea. The NHL can be the league to make it matter most.
The NHL also has the dumbest point system, where a team can theoretically win fewer than 10 games in an entire season and make the playoffs due to the loser point in overtime. A play-in tournament can help right some wrongs when determining who makes the playoffs and who doesn't, simply by playing for it.
Speaking for all of hockey fans, the play-in games would be appointment television. It gives you all the feels of a Game 7, but you get six of them.
The NHL's new network TV partners, ESPN and Turner Sports, will love it.
With the way the last 10 years have gone, rule of thumb for the NHL should be to just copy the NBA. This is a glorious chance to do just that.
