Wouldn’t this solve the load management issue? Call it something like “Regular Season Champion” to make it shiny, or simply “NBA Top Seed”. Start retroactively adding it to past players’ résumé on different websites and media shows.
It also gives credit for beloved top seed teams that didn’t win it all (which are often the less glamorous, honest working teams) like the Suns with Steve Nash, Jazz with Rudy Gobert, and early 2000’s Kings that many people argue were robbed.
I know it isn’t the championship, it doesn’t have to be equal to a real one. But I think it should still count for something more than it currently does. Even if the NBA doesn’t officially recognize it, shouldn’t we as a community care more about this - just so being a top seed doesn’t get lost in history so easily?
Well they just introduced last season the Maurice Podoloff Trophy as the trophy that goes to the team with the best overall record at the end of the regular season
that would be Derrick Rose’s MVP
Wouldn’t this solve the load management issue?
In a vacuum, maybe. But, this still does virtually nothing to incentivize players for the regular season. Still more likely to shoot for 60 wins for the 1 seed overall rather than some cockamamie accomplishment. Basically another
Call it something like “Regular Season Champion” to make it shiny, or simply “NBA Top Seed”. Start retroactively adding it to past players’ résumé on different websites and media shows. It also gives credit for beloved top seed teams that didn’t win it all (which are often the less glamorous, honest working teams) like the Suns with Steve Nash, Jazz with Rudy Gobert, and early 2000’s Kings that many people argue were robbed.
Consolation prizes, especially ones added retrospectively, would be extremely cheap. Furthermore, the benefit would be marginal, if anything. What would the Bucks get out of saying they had the 1 seed this year? A lookup would see them losing to the 8 seed in 5. We had the 1 overall seed in 2022 and (infamously) lost in the second round. If that season didn’t break the franchise win record, we’d have no reason to celebrate.
I know it isn’t the championship, it doesn’t have to be equal to a real one. But I think it should still count for something more than it currently does. Even if the NBA doesn’t officially recognize it, shouldn’t we as a community care more about this - just so being a top seed doesn’t get lost in history so easily?
Unless you get something like the NFL playoffs where the top seed gets a first-round bye, probably won’t ever count for anything. Or if they took the EPL thing they’re trying to pull off to the extreme and suddenly did something crazy and unprecedented like abolishing the playoffs and giving the title to the team with the best end of season record. The top seed exists to qualify you for the playoffs and that’s about it. If the Celtics finished with the 1 seed overall this year, but then lost in the conference finals, you’re not having a reunion for that team in 20 years. It was nice…and then the next season happened.
82 games is a crazy amount of games. Getting some level of recognition for being the best that season isn’t an outrageous idea. Of course it shouldn’t count for anywhere near what a championship trophy counts for, but this definitely has some merit. I even like the retroactive part of it.