OSN: The NBA Should Just Cut to the Chase

BY STEVEN PEELER via Oregon Sports News

The NBA is at a crossroads moment. Do they finish out this current season, or do they abandon ship and move on to next season?

In the grand scheme of things, this is not important. It’s really not. The spread of the virus is rightfully a huge concern, but the fewer teams that are playing again, the less anxiety it creates.

This leads me to my idea of how the NBA can come back:

Let’s just have the Milwaukee Bucks and Los Angeles Lakers play each other in a seven-game series to determine the champion.

Two teams, one location—let’s do it.

We can all agree that was probably going to be the Finals matchup anyway, right? Plus, isn’t it the matchup we all wanted to see? LeBron vs Giannis? Why waste our time with a few other series? Be honest, were you really going to watch every single first-round series? I know I wasn’t. I was going to do what I always do: wait to tune in until the last two minutes of Game 7 of the Finals.

The biggest reason to do this is that there would be less concern about the Coronavirus spreading if there were only two teams, also meaning fewer tests would be needed. Why have all 30 teams come back, or even all of the playoff teams and risk more of a spread of it?

There is another sport we can look to for some sort of precedence for this. The BCS in college football. Two teams were chosen by a computer to play for the national championship. This went on for a *shockingly* long time. And while we all kind of hated it, we all begrudgingly acknowledged that the teams who won were National Champions. The same sort of situation would arise if we just had the Lakers and Bucks play. It’s not perfect, and not every team would have a chance, but at least it’s something.

The NBA doesn’t even have to give the winning team championship rings. Or championship hats and shirts. They should get something smaller like a championship pin, or championship socks. Why not throw it back to Little League and give the winning team a pizza party?

If the Lakers were to win this imaginary series that is never going to happen, the LeBron haters would have a field day claiming that this championship doesn’t count. They would have a point! And I’m happy to accommodate their needs. I would personally make sure Michael Jordan was in attendance to constantly remind LeBron that this doesn’t really count. I would even go so far as to make sure every player signs an oath of silence to make sure this series is never mentioned again.

Now, I fully acknowledge that this is not fair. 100%. And I also acknowledge that this isn’t going to happen, I just wanted to throw this idea out there. It’s obviously a huge risk even with two teams, and if the NBA decides to cancel the season, I think it would make sense. But some sort of conclusion to the season would be nice instead of cancelling it.