Anecdotes from Sloan 2016

[wdleehi]

Also, I'm calling BS here

24. Silver also called for relegation in the NBA, adding that he believes there are too many teams in the league. Few make it to the title game and even fewer win a championship, making it tough to justify their existence after decades of middling performance, he explained.

I can't think of a single team that has not been a contender in the last 35 years - even the worst franchise in NBA's history, the Clips, have made some noise the last couple of years.

Silver just wants to draw attention to how the NBA has evolved from a league where only 5-6 teams had a real shot to the title (that was the case in 80s) to a much more open league in the last few years (last season you had two of the historically weakest franchises playing in the Finals). aka drawing attention to himself

Different Silver.  See note number 23

23. One college basketball factoid: FiveThirtyEight’s Nate Silver called it a “fluke” that a No. 16 seed has never upset a No. 1. He estimated a 16-seed has about a “.5%–5% chance” of winning the matchup and added No. 1 seeds are no longer as dominant as they used to be.

[Donoghus]

Also, I'm calling BS here

24. Silver also called for relegation in the NBA, adding that he believes there are too many teams in the league. Few make it to the title game and even fewer win a championship, making it tough to justify their existence after decades of middling performance, he explained.

I can't think of a single team that has not been a contender in the last 35 years - even the worst franchise in NBA's history, the Clips, have made some noise the last couple of years.

Silver just wants to draw attention to how the NBA has evolved from a league where only 5-6 teams had a real shot to the title (that was the case in 80s) to a much more open league in the last few years (last season you had two of the historically weakest franchises playing in the Finals). aka drawing attention to himself

Nate Silver called for this.  Not Adam Silver.

[fairweatherfan]

I can't think of a single team that has not been a contender in the last 35 years - even the worst franchise in NBA's history, the Clips, have made some noise the last couple of years.

Any team in Charlotte 

[gift]

I can't think of a single team that has not been a contender in the last 35 years - even the worst franchise in NBA's history, the Clips, have made some noise the last couple of years.

Any team in Charlotte 

Also, using 35 years kind of proves the point. That's a long time. I think you'd ideally have every team be a contender or fringe contender at least once in 10 or so years (if parity is the goal).