The NBA and its new broadcast partner ESPN/ABC "want to expand the first round" of the playoffs to a best-of-seven format, according to Howard Beck of the L.A. DAILY NEWS, who notes, "All that's needed is [NBPA] approval, and since more games mean more money, commissioner David Stern expects to have support." But Lakers coach Phil Jackson said, "I'm very disappointed with the NBA if they do that. It's another money-grabbing scheme to play seven-game series. Obviously, everybody wants to have more money in the pool, especially in playoffs, but its a grind the way it is, with four series instead of three, like it was years ago." Lakers C Shaquille O'Neal added of the potential new format, "I want to play the same game that Kareem and Wilt and Bill Russell played. This new bull, I'm not happy with this new-age type basketball. It's just B.S. If they formed a basketball union with guys like Kareem and Magic and Isiah, and they made the rules up, I would respect it, I'd have to let it go. But guys just sitting on their ass all day, saying, 'We need to do this, we need to do that,' that's not good for the game. And it's boring. I will not participate in that crap. I'll do something else. I will" (L.A. DAILY NEWS, 4/24). But in Detroit, Perry Farrell reports Stern and Pistons F and NBPA President Michael Curry "expect next year's first-round series to be best-of seven." Stern said that players would receive about 55% of basketball-related revenue from the expanded format (DETROIT FREE PRESS, 4/24).
THE WAITING IS THE HARDEST PART: ESPN's Tony Kornheiser, noting the breaks between games in the first-round of this year's NBA playoffs: "Teams are actually flying home between road games. This is a joke." ESPN's Michael Wilbon: "It is a joke, and it's solely for (TV). ... It takes two weeks to finish a five-game series. There's no rhythm to the thing at all." Kornheiser: "You're going to turn the NBA into a circus if you stretch it out. It's almost to July. This is awful" ("PTI," 4/24).
NEW TV DEAL: Horrow Sports Ventures President Rick Horrow, on the shift to more cable under the NBA's new TV deal: "The difference is cable subscription. Corporate America is important but it's not as important as before, and that's really the difference. They're basically paying as part of their cable system to have it on AOL/Turner/Time Warner/ESPN, etc. ... It's good for everybody, and therefore it promotes stability"("Business Unusual," CNNfn, 4/23).
LOCAL RATINGS: Game Two of Sonics-Spurs earned an 11.6/18 Nielsen rating on FSN Southwest in San Antonio, marking the net's highest-rated Spurs telecast of the season and the fifth-best ever. Meanwhile, the 38 Pacers games on FSN Midwest this past season averaged a 4.51/ (45,700 HHs), 24% higher than last season. The Pacers finished the '01-02 season with the second-best TV ratings of any of the 22 NBA teams carried on FSN, behind only the Spurs' 5.6/ (40,000) (THE DAILY).
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BOUND TO COVER JUST A LITTLE MORE GROUND: "NBA on NBC" analyst Bill Walton attended last night's Magic-Hornets game as part of his 30 games in 30 days "Love It Live Tour." Walton was asked by WAXN-Ind's Gerry Vaillancourt what is more fun, travelling with the Grateful Dead or the "Love It Live Tour": "We're having more fun here. We've been right here (at the Charlotte Coliseum) with the Grateful Dead many times, but the scene here before the game — we had the band up there at one end, we were dancing, we had the kids — it was a great, great time. Just the response of the fans here is absolutely remarkable" (WAXN, 4/23).
