Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban recently voiced his concerns about the league deciding to reopen practice facilities for certain teams. Fearing for the safety of his players, coaching staff, and employees, the billionaire even went as far as saying that he wanted to use the White House's protocol when it comes to testing individuals for the coronavirus.
Cuban is all in on revamping the NBA format altogether, and one of his suggestions is to move the start of the season to Christmas Day. Apparently, this is something that he has been lobbying for for quite some time now:
“I've been saying that for 15 years,” Cuban said on Pardon My Take, via John Chick of theScore. “And the reason I've been getting shot down is, there's this thing called HUT (households using televisions). And during the summer, that drops. … In the past, that was a big deal. So you wanted to end (the NBA season) by June so you could maximize the people watching TV.
“But … TV's changed.”
This is not a random knee-jerk idea from Cuban — with him nothing is, actually — as he bases his proposition on data. Cuban is absolutely right when he says that the way people watch games today has changed drastically from years ago.
Cuban went on to explain that this would be a smart move for the NBA, as it would put the league in a position that it won't be going head-to-head with the NFL:
“We're going to have a lot more options and a lot more flexibility to start later and end later,” he said. “And rather than taking on football with, you know, our first early games, let's let them get close to playoffs and just go wholeheartedly starting Christmas Day.”
Cuban does make a lot of sense here, though some star players like Damian Lillard and Kevin Love have already voiced concerns about this type of permanent schedule change because they like their summers. Still, this is something the NBA may look at due to this unique situation.
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