According to Ken Burger of CBS Sports, the NBA is exploring the possibility of moving the start date of the NBA Finals up to June 2.
If both conference finals series end in a sweep, that means there would be no basketball after the game on May 26 until June 4. When there’s that long of a break between series, that could mean less hype surrounding the Finals and the NBA definitely doesn’t want that. If both of these series somehow stretch out to seven games, then there would only be two days between the end of the Eastern Conference Finals and the Finals.
Of course, with any big national event, there are many complications that the NBA will face if they want to do this. First of all, there is the issue of hotel availability and travel. There will be an influx of people coming to both cities two days earlier, so that means that hotels might be overbooked and there may not be enough travel options as those would fill up as well.
Another issue is the TV scheduling. A lot of the national TV stations have things scheduled to air a couple days prior to the Finals, so they would have to either reschedule them or cancel them all together. The discussions going on now have been described as “very early exploration.”
While this may be a problem for TV and preparations for the cities, this could have been a good thing for the Cavs who need to nurse some injuries. Although, the other players would need to keep practicing and working out to make sure that they stay in shape themselves for the Finals. Either way, after some of the series we’ve seen so far, it didn’t look like we would be in this situation. Hopefully the Hawks and Rockets can make some kind of run and make these series more interesting.
