One-and-Done or Best-of-Seven?
T-Mac might favor 1-and-done.In the comments section of today’s Smack, reader Gee referenced an interview where Derek Fisher and Andrei Kirilenko were apparently in favor of the NBA playoffs being a one-and-done format. While some players like T-Mac and KG might actually prefer one-and-done to cure their history of first-round exits, there are just too many reasons why that would NEVER, EVER happen — primarily the loss of TV and merchandising revenue, plus why play 82 games just to get knocked out in one night? Still, it did bring to mind a question:
Do you prefer the grind-it-out series format of the NBA postseason, the one-and-done format of the NCAA’s Big Dance, or the usual double-elimination style seen in most state high school tournaments?
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June 6th, 2008 at 3:16 pm
s,bucketZ says:
one and done for sure…it makes for more upsets and more excitement..but wit nba it wood b such a waste and would never ever happen…maybe they shood drop the 8th seed in the east and do a one and done tourney in the west for a 9th seed
June 6th, 2008 at 3:25 pm
James says:
The 7 game series is perfect- reduce it back to 5 for all other playoff series… but keep it at 7 for championship and conferance championships. One game… are you kidding. Memphis could beat LA in ONE GAME- that does not decide a true champion. You need to play several to determine a truly tested championship team
June 6th, 2008 at 3:26 pm
Stiletto says:
the po are just right how they are maybe u could think about some kind of wild card games when a team doesn’t make the po only because it plays in the wrong conference like the 8th and 7th seed have to play the teams from the other conference with a better record but didn’t make the po and this games could be one and done
June 6th, 2008 at 3:26 pm
JA says:
A one-and-done tourney for the 8th spots in each conference would be insane. Plus that would be more games and more revenue for the NBA. Get it done.
June 6th, 2008 at 3:31 pm
Jim says:
As fun as one and done is, we’re here to get the champ and make money. Seven game series are the best way to do either thing.
June 6th, 2008 at 3:34 pm
kobeef says:
Seven games is the best way to determine the best team. One and done is intense but a few bad calls or an injury can send the best team home and that’s just not how you want to determine a champion
June 6th, 2008 at 3:40 pm
Star Jones says:
I personally like the grind it out series
June 6th, 2008 at 3:48 pm
tealish says:
A series, of course. You want one fluke game deciding the championship?
Now THIS article was waste of space. And you guys were doing so well of late.
June 6th, 2008 at 4:05 pm
fallinup says:
I agree with kobeef. You beat a team four times in a series of seven and YOU ARE the better team. I want the best team to be the champion. Which is why I just don’t get into the NCAA tourney as some folks.
June 6th, 2008 at 4:08 pm
rangerjohn says:
i think they should go to like a best of 3 for the 1st round, best of 5 second round, and best of 7 for conf and nba finals.
but then i also think they need to go to a 16 team format and not the 8-8 any more. there where to many decent teams in the west missing the playoffs and to many not good teams in the east get a shot.
June 6th, 2008 at 4:17 pm
Prof. TX says:
@post 10
Agreed, shorter series in early rounds and an end to losing teams seeing the post season while winning teams go home.
Though the East still has it easier in a best-16 system, since they’re playing East teams most of the season. You might have to balance schedules a little more.
June 6th, 2008 at 4:18 pm
Austin Burton says:
I’d rather watch a first-round NCAA tourney game than a first-round NBA series.
June 6th, 2008 at 4:28 pm
Dagomar says:
Why would any basketball fan want to watch LESS basketball? I want to see the best players in the world go at it as long as possible. Why would I want Kobe or Lebron knocked out of the first round in a fluke game?
One and done is a terrible idea for the NBA.
June 6th, 2008 at 4:29 pm
Austin Burton says:
It’s not asking what you’d wanna see for the NBA necessarily, it’s what format do you like watching more? I like the one-and-done of the NCAA tournament, although I wouldn’t say the NBA should do it.
June 6th, 2008 at 4:30 pm
Austin Burton says:
Or look at it this way: Would college ball be better if they had a 16-team tournament that was best-of-5/7 for each series?
June 6th, 2008 at 4:32 pm
AY says:
I’d rather watch a WNBA playoffs than an NCAA tourney; the single elimination style marginalizes the importance of being a champion.
June 6th, 2008 at 4:42 pm
DO says:
series are better. it gives a chance for teams to make adjustments, and allows for momentum shifts. think how boring these playoffs would have been if all the series ended after game one. also, there would be more excuses and whining, conspiracy theories, and blaming the refs. in a 7 game series, the better team almost always wins
June 6th, 2008 at 4:51 pm
rangerjohn says:
the thing about going all 16 teams look at the matchups
best record 1-16
bos vs tor
det vs por
lal vs wash
no vs cle
sa vs gs
hou vs den
pho vs dal
utah vs orl
i would see a second round of
bos vs utah
det vs pho
lal vs hou
no vs sa
third round?
bos vs sa
det vs lal
finals?
sa vs lal? or bos vs lal like it is now. i dont see detroit beating either the spurs or the lakers so they would be out.
June 6th, 2008 at 5:30 pm
Daily boy says:
The NBA will never go for this, it’s too much money to be lost, of course some fans would be happy and some would be upset because there team had an off night & the next day there eating popcorn with the rest of the fans, on the other hand the hard-nose ball that would be played would be crazy to see. But with all that said STERN AIN’T THINKING ABOUT THIS POST.
June 6th, 2008 at 5:43 pm
pimpin says:
first of all, the 16 best seeds regardless of conference isn’t fair. Its divided east/west because the east plays the east teams more than the west and vice versa. An east 1 seed may have better record than a west 5 seed but that west team had a rougher schedule as well, that’s why its divided.
But as far as playoffs, I think there should be a double elimination mini tourney for the bottom four seeds. That way the four teams in each conference with home court In the first round are already in, but the rest of the teams duke it out for those bottom four seeds. More excitement, more league revenue, and the teams that play well over the season are rewarded but teams that maybe had a critical injury in the middle of the season still have a shot.
June 6th, 2008 at 6:05 pm
Smooth says:
1 & done is a stupid idea that would destroy teh playoffs there would be no point in doing a regulkar season, as any could win, 7 game series is great as it show who the best team is, it would destroy history if they chenged teh format 2 one and done, hat a load of shit, why would you bring up sumin so wack
June 6th, 2008 at 6:07 pm
Smooth says:
1 & done is a stupid idea that would destroy the playoffs there would be no point in doing a regular season, as anyone could win, 7 game series are great as it show’s who the best team is, it would destroy history if they changed the format 2 one and done, what a load of shit, why would you bring up sumin so wack
June 6th, 2008 at 6:42 pm
Austin Burton says:
My bad for not being clear, so let’s try again:
The question is, do you prefer watching one-and-done playoff games or best-of-seven playoff series?
June 6th, 2008 at 6:50 pm
Yoooo says:
Completely Unrelated
Looking at the brawl between the Red Sox and Rays, why is it that in baseball, a sport that isn’t predominantly black, when 2 WHOLE teams stomp each other out its funny to the media and not assault??? That’s crazy that they can just roll each other out like that with little ass repercussions (7 games out of a 162 game season???). God forbid a NBA player (who more than likely is gonna be black) even picks up a hard foul they talkin about suspending him for a couple games. 2 years ago when the Nuggets/Knicks “brawl” (which only consisted of like 7 players, opposed to the 50 that were rockin in the Sox game) the players involved missed like 40 games, of an 82 game season!!! If that aint a double standard I don’t kno what is. Let the white boys get aggressive with each other its some manly aggression, let the brothers romp and they’re animals who need to go to jail! If people think racism still doesn’t exist they got the blindfolds on. Im mad insulted by this. All those coddling ass rules they try to enforce on black MEN making MILLIONS of dollars (“tuck your shirt in”, “put on a collar & jacket”, no profanity in interviews. They even trying to implement a long hair rule in the NFL cuz cats dreads are too long!) is ridiculous. Baseball players are notorious drug abusers, who over indulge in alcohol, drive fast WHILE drunk, womanizers, overly aggressive, dickheads! But I swear theres at least one profanity laced tyrade a week! And they still don’t have rules to abide by. Them arrogant ass white boys get away with everything. John Rocker basically wiped his dick with MLK’s legacy and that mufucka was still getting jobs. I don’t get it man, and as a young black man, that shit is infuriating!!!
Vent over
June 6th, 2008 at 6:52 pm
GEE...in a NY state of mind says:
1. Of course we wll know Stern would never do this but what if to me is more of the point. Everything becomes greater with a 1 and done. take last night, now paul’s possible lol injury and comeback becomes of magnificent legend. On the other side Kobe gets the treatment for not showing up to some.
2. sure you wouldn’t necessarily get the best team but the bottom line is you would get the team that brought it for the most important game ever.
3. possibly just possibly you get higher ratings because you get more people to tune in for all the magic in a winner take all. its plenty of so so basketball fans that dont even get in to the game till the playoffs. so of course there are people who only watch the game 7s. so you know all those so so fans would kick in for a winner take all.
4. only way i see it is make the season longer to account for less playoff games. Go to the best 20 teams and go at it. at least i know Fisher and AK might like it lol.
not saying i would like it but it is something to at least ponder. i do think for this particular sport and only 16 teams then it should be what ranger suggested. Perhaps more than 82 games though.
college game is fine for so many teams involved.
i do wonder also about the all star game at the end of the playoffs like football and they should make the trade deadline bout 2 weeks longer.
June 6th, 2008 at 8:23 pm
Homeless J says:
I thought it was great when they had five-game first-round series and the finals were seven. You still get upsets with a young team being able to knock someone off in three games instead of four.
One and done works for a sport like the NFL, where they play a fewer amount of games during the regular season, but it’s ridiculous for a sport where you play more games. It works perfect for the NCAA because they only have about 30 games per season, including the tournament. I would hate to see it in the NBA.
June 6th, 2008 at 9:01 pm
marvin says:
I always preferred seven games because you always want to see the best of the best match up against each other not just some cinderella or something.
The upsets of 94′Denver(vs Sea), 99′NY(vs Mia) even though not much of an upset considering the history and 07′ GS(vs Dal) were legit because they did it in a series of games.
June 7th, 2008 at 1:16 am
yallallreadyknow says:
one and done only works for the college game. not for the nba game. it works for the nfl, but not for the nba.
i dont see how a 1 game playoff in the nba would benefit anybody. i just dont see it.
i think the nba should tweak some of the playoff format. for instance, there is still NO need for a 1st round series to be 7 games. change that back to 5….or better yet 3 like rangerjohn suggested in #10
hehehe…imagine two of the best words in sports being GAME ONE?!!?
how foolish…there is no need to even consider one and done in the nba.
i like watching a 1 game playoff for the ncaa tourney, but not for the nba playoffs
June 7th, 2008 at 2:05 am
Big Sneezy says:
One and done in the NCAAs is definitely more exciting…until the game starts and your team is getting blown out. Let’s face it, for every classic game there’s four or five snoozers. The NCAAs is all about the intrigue, because they match up teams in the early rounds that haven’t faced one another. So, as a viewer, it has a high risk-reward factor. When it’s good, it’s really good, but when it’s bad, it’s time to change the channel.
The NBA is just set up differently, where every team has played the other team a few times, so there aren’t any surprises. It’s a more cerebral game, the quality of basketball is higher, and because every team earned their way in and wasn’t selected by a questionable at-large system, the games and series have a higher chance of being competitive.
I’ll have to defend the current system on the basis that it encourages rivalries to develop within the conference. Would it really have been so sweet if MJ hadn’t lost to the Pistons for three straight years before beating them and breaking through? Or as devastating had New York not lost like five times in eight years to Jordan’s Bulls teams?
June 7th, 2008 at 5:32 pm
word says:
nah keep it way it is or maybe go back to the 3 of 5 format from before, one game isn’t enough entertainment for me
what they do need to change is the MVP voting back to before where the players vote not the media. that really needs to go back to old school format.
June 8th, 2008 at 4:00 pm
E$ says:
1,3,5,7