CALLING YOU OUT! - WHOEVER MAKES UP THE NBA PLAYOFF SCHEDULE

by WCT, The Ship of Fools

“Calling You Out!” is a periodic segment where WCT takes people to task for irresponsible journalism, foolhardy activities, or just general douchebaggery. Nothing is sacred, no one is spared, watch your ass mister! You could be next!

Today - Screw you NBA, for giving us one of the worst TV sports weekends of the year

The long, slow, seemingly-endless march to determining the second participant in the NBA Western Conference Finals will end tonight.

Actually, I take that back. "March" is not the correct term, because a march is a continuously moving process, whereas for some reason the Spurs-Hornets series has been at a complete standstill since last Thursday.

Maybe I am the only one who gets irked by this, but I really would love to know what the thinking is when the powers-that-be draw up these playoff schedules. After playing game 6 on Thursday, San Antonio and New Orleans took three whole days off before game 7 tonight. I realize that sometimes transcontinental travel makes multiple days off in between games necessary, but San Antonio and New Orleans are about 600 miles apart. Cleveland and Boston are about 700 miles apart, and they played a game on Wednesday in Boston, a game on Friday in Cleveland, and a game on Sunday back in Boston. The Spurs and Hornets need three days off between games 6 and 7? This wouldn't make me so mad, if it weren't for the fact that West's extra travel days created one of the worst TV sports nights of the year this past Saturday, and it meant that between all day Saturday and all day Sunday, there was only one NBA playoff game.

Speaking of peculiar scheduling, the NBA announced the schedule for the NBA Finals, and it too is a head-scratcher. Game 1 is played on a Thursday, game 2 two days later on Sunday, and game 3 one day later on Tuesday. What if the series is Boston vs. Los Angeles? Then you will have two days off after game 1 with no travel, and one day off after game 2, when you have a 3,000 mile, cross-country flight. Then you have the same one-day layoff when the potential 3,000 mile return flights would be made between games 5 and 6.

The moral of the story is, I have no idea what the person was thinking when they drew up the schedules for these series. I have no idea why the NBA wouldn't want to showcase a game 7 during primetime on Saturday night, or Sunday night, and instead gave the teams three days off when there was very little travel needed. I have no idea why the American sports fan's TV choices were WNBA games and MLS matches on Saturday (the two minutes that were the Preakness Stakes notwithstanding). I have no idea why the schedule for The Finals has weird extra days off scattered throughout the series at times that do not seem to make sense. David Stern is a pretty good Commissioner, so I assume there is a reason behind this strange scheduling, but I can't figure it out, and I defy you to do so.