As Winter Sinks In, I Suggest A New Summer Tradition

        I know I just wrote about the NBA in my most recent post, and I know that Major League Baseball has already claimed that their All-Star Game is the 'Midsummer Classic', but my last post really got me thinking that with a little bit of a change in scheduling, sports fans could enjoy a much more meaningful sporting event in the middle of our summer months. Why not have the NBA Finals culminate in Mid-to-late July or even early August rather than the beginning of June? The idea comes to mind because of the fact that the current NBA lockout has already prevented the NBA regular season from starting at its usual time. So instead of shortening the season like it had been done in the past, just postpone the season and play the full slate of games anyway. What would be the harm in crowning an NBA champion on August 3rd as opposed to June 9th? Logistically, this year it would be a much more difficult task to accomplish since it is such short notice and most, if not all of the arenas that are used as NBA home courts are undoubtedly already booked for other summer events such as concerts, plays and trade shows, to name a few. But even if it is not possible to save the entire NBA season this year, it begs the question of why the NBA hasn't already given serious consideration to changing the start and finish dates of their season anyway. Here are a few of my reasons for why this makes so much sense.

- Pro Basketball is played completely indoors where the climate is always controlled. Therefore the weather outside has no impact on the game whatsoever and should have nothing to do with when the season is played.

- Basketball season currently overlaps all 3 of the other major American professional sports at one point during the year so the scheduling or availability of the venues and/or television programming schedules should have nothing to do with the time of year that the season is played.

- There is far too much going on at the end of October/beginning of November (which is when the NBA basketball season typically starts). The NFL season is building momentum and still garners the fresh excitement of a new season where every team is still pretty much in the playoff hunt. Meanwhile, pro baseball has literally just come to a close so just when you think you can devote some time purely to football, here comes the start of the NBA season. Oh yeah, and I can't be sure, but I think a few people might even be watching hockey at this time too.

- Overlapping of sports has to happen at some point, and since Christmas Day tends to be the first time the NBA has its product appear on nationally televised basic cable, they might as well embrace that same buzz with a killer season opener rather than risking a mid-season injury to a star player that they were planning on using to market their big Christmas Day game. Plus NBA tickets would make a great 'strike while the iron is hot' gift idea for the sports fan in your life!

- Although there isn't much going on during the NBA Championship series, their playoffs are just getting underway as Major League Baseball makes its return. The season opening in any sport is a time where there is a lot of attention and buzz being generated for said sport, but it is especially true for baseball because it is far too easy to lose interest in the middle of a grueling 162-game season. So why have your playoffs (the most exciting time of the NBA season) compete with something as big as the return of pro baseball?

- If you're going to compete with a big moment in baseball, it might as well be the All-Star game since that is a likely time period for the NBA Finals to be played if the season tipoff was postponed for two months. The All-Star game in baseball is barely even a meaningful event to fans anymore since the high profile All-Stars don't show up, the voting system and method for choosing backup players is convoluted and contradictory to the entire point of an All-Star game, and it's decrease in popularity has even been proven by MLB's efforts to bring fans back to the event by allowing the outcome of this exhibition to determine home field advantage in the World Series. You could even argue that this is the best time to hold the NBA Finals because as long as they made an effort to effectively plan ahead of time, baseball fans wouldn't even have to choose what to watch since the MLB All-Star game also comes with an extended break for all MLB teams.

- To reiterate, if there isn't much competition as far as television ratings are concerned in early June, the NBA would dominate the professional sports scene ratings in late July. Not to mention, I've always been more motivated to actually get out there and play basketball when the season is still being played. I know that's merely personal preference but I can't be the only one that feels this way. So it might be a long shot, but it may even encourage more kids to play more often during the summer, when it also just so happens to be their time off from school.

      I think those are good enough reasons to give it strong consideration, but even if you removed these benefits I still ask, what would be the harm? Perhaps I am overlooking a strategic reason behind the scheduling of the NBA season, so if anyone knows and cares to shed some light on the topic, I am all ears.