The Whiteboard: The NBA, like every league, needs to integrate relegation
By Ti Windisch
Implementing it is probably literally impossible, but adding relegation to the NBA would be amazing.
One of the NBA’s biggest problems is tanking. Adam Silver and the rest of the folks in the league office clearly agree, as some slight rule changes have been implemented already to try and convince teams bottoming out on purpose is a bad idea.
What if there was a way, in one fell swoop, to eliminate all thoughts of tanking and to make watching the teams at the bottom an exciting prospect even without it? It turns out there is, folks, and it’s called relegation.
For those unfamiliar with the term, relegation is when the bottom few teams in a league at the end of the league year actually fall out into a lower level league, with some top teams in the league below getting the chance to move up. The Premier League in England has it, and it is super fun. Well, not for the relegated teams it isn’t.
But forget them. Instead imagine the viewing experience as bad teams fight tooth and nail to win games all throughout the season to ensure they don’t end up losing a spot in the NBA. Right now, plenty of games simply do not matter. If relegation were a thing, every single one would have meaning.
The hard parts about actually implementing it, which will almost certainly never ever happen, would be figuring out the other leagues involved and what to do with the NBA Draft. Some people have already suggested abolishing the draft entirely; let’s assume that’s the answer there and leave it at that.
As far as the other league, simple observation would suggest the only other true professional basketball league in the United States is the G League. In its current structure though, of course that could never work. The NBA teams sent down would annihilate their competition, while the G League teams that rose up wouldn’t stand a chance.
If relegation had to be implemented immediately, it would make more sense to use the two conferences instead. The West would obviously be the upper tier, with the East serving as punishment for being terrible. Maybe the first season could feature a mid-year relegation scenario, so teams like the Celtics, Raptors, Bucks and 76ers could fight to make it to the West before the postseason began.
Thinking too hard about adding relegation to the NBA presents about a billion holes in the concept, but it would add even more drama to some of the best entertainment out there if teams could lose their spots in the league. And who doesn’t want more drama in their NBA viewing experience?
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