On Expansion of the Global Game In-League
February 24, 2024 Leave a comment
With the conclusion of All-Star Weekend 2024 that blended classic gameplay and new technology, the Regular Season returns to finish the remaining ~25+ games for Franchises in competition for seedings in brackets Playoffs and the Play-In Tournament (est. 2020) respectively. With several subjects on the state of the Association re: Players, Referees, Awards criteria, and the Draft discussed during Commissioner Adam Silver’s media availability, what is often not discussed openly and rather in mum terms is League Expansion in this Era of the National Basketball Association.
In the past, sports has witnessed in North America expansion as “addition via absorption” within the United States basketball scene or “addition via creation” in the Canadian market. Teams either existed already or were created on the basis of market demand — the ABA and its conceding to the NBA via negotiations, while the defunct Vancouver Grizzlies and the Toronto Raptors, one-time champions, were considered novelties then.
Today, A.Silver has openly expressed in an interview with The Dan Patrick Show that the League is open to expanding the number of Teams within the Association via a foreign country in a different continent with a Sovereign Wealth Fund. This is not impossible in academic terms but should business interests pursue this track and tack to Franchise then it would be hard to ignore the Invisible Hand in the economic context when current leadership can entertain the possibility given the current Collective Bargaining Agreement.
Countries in Europe, the Middle East, and Asia own investment funds that are state-owned with fiscal resources acquired from stakeholders elsewhere. But additional Team/s could mean changes in the overall structure of gameplay in the NBA. Legitimate questions on the number of Games to be played could lead to the questioning of the viability of the 82-game regular season as current floor and ceiling for scope.
Can the NBA as a professional basketball league unlike any other trim the length of games before the Playoffs played by Teams since the 1967-1968 season with net profits in mind as an Association together with Governors? In the final analysis, a 65-game season with more Teams in competition would lead to more games played in total, theoretically speaking. And less games could mean more competitiveness, more intensity as there are less chances to get in the Playoffs by the numbers. Wary and cautious, understanding and agreement must be reached before the formal transactions.
PHOTO CREDIT:
1) Locsin, Mark Angelo C., NBA LEAGUE PASS
2) Ibid, City of Taguig
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