These past 8 days have been excruciating for myself and millions of fans and basketball aficionados all over the world. Unfortunately, the NBA successfully managed to stall the momentum of possibly one of the greatest Finals Series that we may ever experience.
Why the long break? Well, since the season began the NBA had zeroed in on a June 4th start date, and just last week after days of speculation of a earlier start date, the NBA had determined it is not logistically possible to move up the upcoming Finals, reports CBSSports.com’s Ken Berger.
NBA Commissioner Adam Silver was on the Rich Eisen radio show and explained why.
“Truth be told, we did have that conversation about potentially moving up, and Susie would know this, some years ago we used to have a built in move up. If both Conference Finals series didn’t go longer than five games, we would’ve moved up two days. So, under that scenario, we would have started (Tuesday) rather than Thursday night. So certainly when the East finished, and we saw that there was a chance that the West could finish with five games or fewer, we had that discussion. So…for Disney, ABC/ESP, it is difficult to move on short notice given they have other scheduled programming, but it wasn’t just an ABC issue…As you know, we’re broadcast in over two hundred countries, so then we’re dealing with broadcasters all around the world who have preset broadcast windows. So, then it creates enormous issues for them. On top of that, we have roughly a thousand credentialed media who come to the finals, many of them from outside of the United States who, well of course they don’t know exactly what city they’re going to be in, they fly into New York or L.A. depending where they’re coming from and then fly from there; and then there’s the hotels and other issues.
“So…for Disney, ABC/ESPN, it is difficult to move on short notice given they have other scheduled programming, but it wasn’t just an ABC issue… As you know, we’re broadcast in over two hundred countries, so then we’re dealing with broadcasters all around the world who have preset broadcast windows. So, then it creates enormous issues for them. On top of that, we have roughly a thousand credentialed media who come to the finals, many of them from outside of the United States who, well of course they don’t know exactly what city they’re going to be in, they fly into New York or L.A. depending where they’re coming from and then fly from there; and then there’s the hotels and other issues. So, you know ultimately there was a reason why we locked in the date and we decided to stick by it.
“And lastly I’ll say especially when there’s no doubt that there’s some players that will be benefitted from the rest, I’m always reluctant mid-course to change a rule and so everyone knew going into these playoffs, all the teams, exactly when the finals would start. They knew if the conference finals series ended earlier, they would have that much rest coming up. So it felt strange, even though we had the conversation with ABC and ESPN and said, “If we wanted to, could we,” we talked to the buildings to see if they were available, but ultimately we decided we had made this decision a few years ago to lock it in, let’s stick with it. And I don’t think it’s a bad thing. I think it will lead to better competition, because players on both teams need the rest.”
The good news after all of this is that the NBA Finals start tomorrow. Golden State’s Best two-way forward in Klay Thompson will play and Cleveland’s All-Star PG Kyrie Irving will not be 100 percent but he will be better than previously reported. Let’s just hope this wait was worth it, because I do believe it was.
The Warriors hold home-court advantage in the series because they finished the regular season with the league’s best record (67-15).
Here’s the full Finals schedule, all times Eastern:
Game 1: Thursday, June 4, Cleveland at Golden State, 9 p.m., ABC
Game 2: Sunday, June 7, Cleveland at Golden State, 8 p.m., ABC
Game 3: Tuesday, June 9, Golden State at Cleveland, 9 p.m., ABC
Game 4: Thursday, June 11, Golden State at Cleveland, 9 p.m., ABC
Game 5*: Sunday, June 14, Cleveland at Golden State, 8 p.m., ABC
Game 6*: Tuesday, June 16, Golden State at Cleveland, 9 p.m., ABC
Game 7*: Friday June 19, Cleveland at Golden State, 9 p.m., ABC
*if necessary
