It feels as though it has been months since the Denver Nuggets won their first championship. In reality, that happened only a few weeks ago. Since then, fans have been treated to the NBA Draft, NBA free agency and the Summer League, all of which are more exciting than the first two months of the regular season.
Seriously, does anyone actually remember basketball games being played in October and November? Me neither. And before Adam Silver can chime in, no midseason tournament will change the fact the NBA regular season is meaningless.
If anything, it has been made even more meaningless because two play-in teams advanced to the Conference Finals. Teams won’t be chomping at the bit to try harder to avoid the play-in now after seeing both the Lakers and Heat advance in the playoffs.
It’s not all bad news for basketball fans. NBA free agency is more exciting than the first two months of the regular season which gives us all something to talk about in July. The league deserves some credit for turning what should be a mundane period after the NBA Finals into something with action.
Seriously, the Woj bombs and Brian Windhorst memes are far more compelling than a random Indiana Pacers matchup against the Minnesota Timberwolves played in late November. Free agency just offers so much more drama than early season games.
One lesson the NBA should have learned from the 2020–21 season and didn’t was that fewer games and a later start date were better. The sport filled a nice, NFL-sized gap in the sporting calendar. It started around Christmas and by the time the draft and free agency were completed, football was back.
Instead, Adam Silver and the powers that be want to jam the public up with more games and a stupid tournament that only he seems to want. At least he hasn’t been able to ruin NBA free agency, although it’s probably not great that these transactions are more exciting than the first two months of the regular season.
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