NBA and Soccer: chalk & cheese

[Ed Monix]

NBA Commissioner Adam Silver and journalists have referenced connections to European Football for ideas and the recent rise in player movement, but IMO they couldn’t be more wrong.

Silver has brought forward an idea of an NBA knockout cup, similar to the English F.A Cup (tournament held during the league season). Why this doesn’t make sense is that in a soccer tournament, a team from lower divisions outside of the premier league can take part, differing it from the regular season. Thus a small no name team can win their way to playing in the final with one of the biggest teams in the world, that is what makes the cup tournament attractive to fans and unfortunately the NBA can’t offer this.

Journalists have also commented that prevalent nba player movement and forcing trades is just catching up to soccer which again has no correlation. Almost all soccer leagues have no regulated salary caps, so wages dramatically vary club to club depending on wealth. When players move teams usually they aren’t even from that country to begin with (international players) or are from a small club which can’t afford to offer wages anyway near what a big team can. What also factors into soccer player movement are transfer fees which can be in the ten’s of millions and are the lifeblood of smaller clubs, who are devoted to purely youth development.

I have also heard journalists questioning why can’t the nba just get every team to play each other twice just like soccer because travel is no longer an issue…if the NBA did this…it would make the playoffs & finals redundant.

[PAOBoston]

Leagues/Cups work in soccer because there are multiple divisions in each country that utilize relegation/promotion. I prefer that structure (byproduct of growing with European soccer/basketball). Gives you belief you can win something each year (as well as your team financially benefitting as well).

Personally, I prefer that structure but admit it is impossible to apply to the US. There is no secondary league for NBA. I suppose there’s enough rich people to create a bunch more teams but without the guarantee of making money, I find it hard to believe they could spend money on a D2 team etc. No NBA owner would agree to relegation and risk losing on the guaranteed purse they get whether they have a good team or not. I also don’t think Americans would ever truly accept that system. It works for Europe. It really won’t work here.