The NBA to Set up a Promotion/Relegation system

The NBA should seriously consider setting up a system that resembles European Football (or soccer) in order to make the league far more competitive, interesting, and create a more intimate feel for fans that don’t live near a pro basketball team.

First… a relegation system means that there would need to be multiple tiers of basketball leagues in place, and there are. In the USA the main leagues are the NBA and its development league, the G-League. Let’s just say for example that these leagues were set up in a promotion/relegation system now (they aren’t but bare with me). At the end of the season the bottom 3 teams in the NBA would be relegated to the G-League and the top 3 teams in the G-League would be promoted to the NBA for the next season of basketball. The teams that were not in the bottom 3 of the NBA would remain in the NBA for the next season and the teams that were not in the top 3 of the G-League would stay in the G-League for the next season. Now that we know what a promotion/relegation system is… why would it make things better?

In the NBA each season there are maybe 3-4 teams that have a REAL and LEGITIMATE chance to win the championship. The other 26 teams know it and at some point the worst teams in the league start to tank or lose on purpose in order to get the best pick in next years draft. This creates a very poor atmosphere for about half of the leagues teams and cities for the majority of the year. There is no excitement unless one of the better teams comes to town (aka the Warriors or Lakers). If these teams had the threat of dropping to the G-League in the next season if they finish in the bottom 3… then they won’t want to lose on purpose anymore. No millionaire NBA player wants to go down a league and take the bus to the next game. On the flip side… the G-League teams will have even more to play for. Instead of fighting to play well enough to earn an NBA contract (which is how the league is set up now)… G-League players will be playing for their teams right to join the NBA.

Another reason things would get more competitive… things would get a crazier from a fans standpoint. For instance, soccer in England is one of the most competitive and most watched sports in the world but there is a team in virtually every town. People treat their team like it’s a cult. They’re crazy about their hometown teams. The bigger cities like England have multiple teams but on the flip-side some of the smaller towns with only 10,000 people have a team. This creates a sense of pride amongst communities and allows for more hometown fans and far less “band-wagon” supporting of the more elite teams. In turn – the more competitive and loyal atmosphere would urge front offices to run their teams more effectively and not encourage “tanking” in order to get the first pick in the draft.

Building off of the last point, a third reason for a promotion/relegation system in North American basketball is that fans will treat G-League teams as a solo entity. What do I mean by this? My favorite NBA team as a native Ohio is the Cleveland Cavaliers. They’re G-League affiliate is the Canton Charge. As a Cavs fan I rarely check on the Canton Charge and their progress because they are just an extension of the Cavs. If someone does well for the Charge they will get called up to the Cavs so I really have no reason or motivation to care or watch the G-League. If they were they’re own entity however, I would be more willing to cheer for them to make it to the NBA.

The promotion/relegation system would give teams a chance to make more money than they do now. Going back to my last example… if the Canton Charge were to finish in the top 3 in the G-League they would get to move up to the NBA the next season. Once they were in the NBA more fans would come to games because they’d be in the top league now! LeBron would come to town. The Golden State Warriors would come to town. Ticket sales, merchandise, publicity and overall interest would skyrocket! Once this happens, the team would make more money to hire better players and ensure that the Charge could stay in the NBA for years to come.

There are hundreds of reasons to implement a promotion/relegation system into the NBA but these are just a few. We as fans would all benefit in so many ways from this! Let’s make it happen.