A Slice of Bacon

A sports friend of mine was in a rage last night. Rage. Sitting at a poker table in Las Vegas, his weekly post for work and hair-loss, my buddy simply wanted some sports on the ill-placed televisions around the casino to keep his attention when the cards didn’t quite find his seat. 

Normally, that would be the NBA. The Pacers would be playing some meaningless basketball game against the Bobcats and he’d be partially paying attention because he’s a sports fan and that’s what we do. We watch whatever the networks will show us, and if that isn’t enough, we will shell out more money to see even more of the games we love that our cable providers won’t show us. 

So my angry friend started texting me. He complained about the owners, bitched about the players, and in all that hysteria, made some valid points. He said cable companies and sponsors should be willing to offer teams money in exchange for their product because, frankly, they need the NBA. Maybe not now, but they will. TNT needs it. ESPN could use it. When the Super Bowl wraps and the national champion has been crowned, the country moves it’s attention to basketball.

And through all his bemoaning, the point that stuck with me was the idea that we don’t really need the NBA until after football. Yes, there are some basketball fans that are dying for ball nights, but the majority of sports fans can pass the time with the NFL and college football. We have baseball playoffs for the majority of our October, and then football hits its stride. 

So why not do something out of this strike that makes sense? Why not push the regular season of basketball to Christmas? Wouldn’t that round out our sports calendar to perfection? 

Before you stop listening, let me ask you this; what is the worst time for sports? The summer, right? Baseball is still playing pointless games, basketball has wrapped, football still isn’t gearing up for preseason and fantasy drafts. We have days when Sportscenter will run just about anything to fill the slot.

On top of that, what is the most hectic time for sports? Probably the spring, right? You have both the NBA and NHL playoffs running simultaneously and no matter if you’re a fan of one or both, you’re either trying to catch everything or sharing your sports bar TVs with the other. 

Hockey playoffs need more attention. Frankly, it’s one of the sneakiest best sporting events of the year. I love watching NHL hockey, because like baseball, it really seems completely different than the regular season. Hardly any fights, great hockey, every team having a chance to win every game. I love it. 

So why not give the NHL the playoffs to themselves during the springs, and as the Stanley Cup finals is winding down, the NBA playoffs kick off? They run until the end of July/early August, finish up, and now you have preseason NFL and baseball playoffs kicking off at the same time. 

Seems easy enough, right? I know that this lockout means a shortened season, but why not just push it? Give NBA and the NHL a chance to breath on their own? 

I know as a sports fan, I’d absolutely love this. Every summer I have to go through without much on just seems to go longer and longer.