The world of sports is very traditional and doesn’t normally accept many modifications, as they always cause a lot of controversy. But this is something that is slowly changing, as more and more modifications are being introduced in different sports. It happened first with the use of technology to help refereeing decisions and now it is happening with modifications to competitions.
The most visible face of the changes affecting the NBA is, undoubtedly, Adam Silver, commissioner of the league itself. Since his arrival as commissioner in 2014, he has always been a person who has sought to ensure that the NBA reaches an increasingly larger audience and that the younger generations get hooked on the sport.
This revolutionary zeal may have been influenced by his previous predecessor, the great David Stern, a legend of the league, who sadly passed away in 2020, and who for many is the best commissioner in the history of the NBA for all that his time in the league entailed.
Adam Silver has been trying in recent years to make the regular season more attractive and to ensure that as many teams as possible have real goals until the end of the season. One of these new features, which seems to me to be a textbook success, is the Play-In.
What is the Play-In?
The Play-In was an innovative NBA proposal that was introduced for the 2020-2021 season and is still in force. It consists of two elimination rounds prior to the playoffs in which the seventh and eighth places in each of the conferences are decided.
What this format means is that all the teams want to win games to avoid falling into it, as a bad game against any rival can be very costly. In addition, this puts an end to the speculation that often existed, in which teams didn’t win so many games in order to try to match up in the first round with a certain team that they saw as inferior.
In its early years, like everything else, it was something that did not attract much attention and even had many detractors, but over time, it has proven to be a ‘little competition’ that is very much loved by NBA fans. Not least because this year is likely to be the wildest Play-In to date.
There is drama in the Eastern Conference, as there is a certain equality between many teams and there was a determining factor that dynamited everything, which is the return of Embiid to the court. After the injury to last season’s MVP, the 76ers fell from second place to the Play-In positions they now occupy.
Under normal conditions and, if Embiid plays regularly, everything points to them getting out of there. The Hawks and Bulls are already assured of their participation and then the other two teams, seems to be between the Pacers, Miami or 76ers.
In the Western Conference something much worse is happening. If nobody wants to enter the Play-In, here even less, as many teams and players to avoid are in a position to play. Here we can find teams like Warriors, Kings, Lakers, Pelicans or Suns that could enter the Play-In.
Some of them, like Warriors, Lakers or Suns, are teams that, even if they have done very poorly in the regular season, they have superstars with so much experience that nobody would want to cross them.
What is clear is that this new competition, like the In-Season Tournament, makes the NBA more attractive and makes teams take the regular season more seriously. The merits that Adam Silver is achieving as commissioner have led him to renew his contract until 2030.
We will see which teams finally enter this Play-In, but what we know as spectators is that the show is assured.
Main image: @Lakers.
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