LeBron James recently said the person in the NBA who came up with the play-in tournament should be fired.
I wonder if the NBA isn’t also pondering why it’s doing this.
The tournament is a bit complicated to explain as the top six teams have made the playoffs. Then the seventh and eighth seeds play to determine who gets the seventh seed. The loser of that game plays the winner of the game between the ninth and 10th seeds to determine the eighth seed.
Clear as mud? Perfect.
But the problem is after 72 games, the seventh and eighth seeds right now have tremendous star power. In the West, Steph Curry and the Golden State Warriors and LeBron and the Los Angeles Lakers have to play their way in.
In the East, Jayson Tatum and the iconic Boston Celtics as well as the recent triple-double record-setter Russell Westbrook and the Washington Wizards sit seventh and eighth, respectively.
The NBA would rather have these megastars in the playoffs and I’m sure “regret” would describe the league’s attitude to going ahead with this play-in format.