EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. (May 2) -- Unable to reach an agreement with the players' union, the NBA will retain the best-of-5 format for the first round of the playoffs, commissioner David Stern said Thursday night. "I told the players association that it would be important for the league to go to seven, but they're not going to accept that and that's too bad,'' Stern said. Plans to go to a best-of-7 format for the first round were part of the league's new six-year TV contracts with ABC and Turner Sports, although the change was subject to the approval of the union. The issue is bound to come up for discussion again in the future, but next year's playoffs will remain best-of-5 in the first round. The only change will be a maximum of three days off between games, Stern said. The union had asked for a number of concessions from the league, including an increase in the playoff pool. This year's playoff pool will be $8 million, with the team that wins the championship splitting $1,376,000. Players association officials have said a large majority of players were opposed to adding two more games. Union director Billy Hunter could not immediately be reached for comment. "We'll be keeping the five-game format,'' Stern said. "In a time when the (salary) cap might be going down and when it could mean an infusion of millions of dollars to the league, we thought it would be good if we could go to seven games. But it's pretty strong they're not going to agree to that.'' The NBA went to a best-of-5 format for the first round in 1984. The conference semifinals, conference finals and NBA Finals are best-of-7.
Why change the current 5-7-7-7? IMO, what should change is the West/East playoff brackets. Just get the best 16 teams in the League and match them up. There's a better chance of seeing something like a LA and Dallas matchup in the Finals instead of LA and the Hornets. No offense to the Hornets, but I'm willing to bet NBC would prefer Dallas vs. LA.
The only way I'd be down with a 7 game 1st round would be if they shortened the time in between games. This 3 days in between games **** is annoying as hell, it would take a month to finish the first round if they switched to 7 games...
I agree, it takes entirely way too long to finish the 1st round. But considering there are at least two games every day for two weeks, I guess it isn't too bad. I really don't like the idea of going 7 in the 1st round because under the current format you have a bigger potential for great upsets. Like the top two seeds almost going out in the first round like last night...
