NBA Commissioner Praises Playoff Format
Published at | Updated at
Photo by Rich Arden / ESPN Images(NEW YORK) — NBA Commission Adam Silver is so far enjoying the way the NBA Playoffs are unfolding.
Silver told ESPN that the current playoff format is working out just right between the league’s two divisions.
“With this playoff format as you said when we opened, that we have one and two in the West playing one and two in the East, so something’s working,” Silver said. “I think where we maybe need to make an adjustment is the weight that goes to division winners in the seeding. I’m not ready to go one through 16 East and West, but I think we should go one through eight in the West, and one through eight in the East.”
So why not then have the best 16 teams in the NBA play each other in the playoffs?
“The reason I’m not ready to go one thru 16 and mix the East and West (Divisions) is because of travel,” Silver told ESPN.
Silver pointed to the fact that if that system were in place, the Boston Celtics would have played the Golden State Warriors, creating travel concerns and adjustments to time zones.
Silver was also asked about the current “Hack-A-Shaq” strategy that some teams use around the league, most recently with Los Angeles Clippers center Deandre Jordan.
“I’m on the fence,” Silver told ESPN. “And that Game 4 in particular, Deandre Jordan was on the line four times. Of course the Clippers won the game. And they won the game by like roughly 30 points.”
“So I don’t want to overreact. We’ve spent a lot of time studying the issue. I think throughout the playoffs 75 percent of the ‘Hack-A-Shaq’ incidents are connected to two players. 90 percent to two teams. So I think the question becomes should we change a rule for in essence two players?” he added.
Copyright © 2015, ABC Radio. All rights reserved.