September 19, 2024
LAS VEGAS (AP) — The NBA is coming off a massive financial year, with revenue topping $10 billion for the first time and basketball-related income reaching $8.9 billion, another record.
NBA Commissioner Adam Silver said the numbers are particularly strong considering the league is still dealing with a pandemic, and it wasn't that long ago when some questioned whether sports could survive the virus — at least in the sense of whether people would want to gather again.
“The numbers did surprise me to a certain degree because it exceeded projections, and the projections represent where we think our business is going," Silver said. “I think it's quite remarkable from where we came 2 1/2 years ago."
The league’s board of governors met Tuesday and completed the process of changing the transition take foul rule, ending years of discussion about what to do with the long-maligned tactic.
The league’s board of governors approved a plan to award one free throw when teams are disadvantaged by the take foul — as well as removing the “experimental” designation from the play-in element to the postseason.
It wasn't a surprise that the league changed the penalty on take fouls; Silver told The Associated Press in early June that it would change, though cautioned that the new rule might still be tweaked in future years.
The take foul — in which the defender does not make a play on the ball — is what the league classifies as one that occurs either “during a transition scoring opportunity or immediately following a change of possession and before the offensive team had the opportunity to advance the ball.” The exception is in the final 2 minutes of the fourth quarter or overtime.
The new penalty for such a foul is one free throw, which may be attempted by any player on the offended team in the game at the time the foul was committed, and continued possession.
And, also as expected, the play-in tournament is going to be around for the foreseeable future. The tournament has generally been considered a success, so it was no surprise that the league is keeping it around.
The play-in tournament — in its current form — has been used in each of the last two seasons, where the teams that finish seventh, eighth, ninth, and 10th in the East and West meet to determine the final two playoff spots in each conference.
The No. 7 team plays the No. 8 team, with the winner clinching the No. 7 seed in the playoffs. The No. 9 team plays the No. 10 team, with the loser eliminated and the winner moving on to face the team that lost the 7-8 game. The winner of that matchup is the No. 8 seed.
It’s been a hit, primarily because it tends to give a March Madness feel — four elimination games before the playoffs even begin — and gives more teams incentive to not tank for better odds in the draft lottery.
Load management — the fancy term given now when a player gets to sit out a game to rest — was also discussed by the board, and has been a challenge for the league and its teams in recent years. Silver said it will continue to be discussed with the players' association as the sides get more into negotiations for the next collective bargaining agreement.
The league has taken steps, driven by sleep science and other data, to try and make the schedule more player-friendly in recent years. The stretches of four games in five nights have been eliminated, instances of back-to-back games have dropped, and the league has even tinkered with keeping teams in the same road city for consecutive games in an effort to limit travel over the course of a season.
That said, sometimes, a player still sits. Silver suggested it might be time to consider adding money as an incentive for playing more often.
“I’m all in favor of guaranteed contracts," Silver said. “But maybe that on top of your typical guaranteed contracts, some incremental money should be based on number of games played and results of those games. I mean, it’s that’s how most industries work, where there’s financial incentives — even among highly paid executives for performance."
