A Potential Future Issue with NBA Rivals Week

This season, the NBA introduced the first ever NBA Rivals Week from January 24th-28th, which was designed to highlight some of the notable rivalries in the NBA while seeming to create some new ones.  Some of the games that were featured included past playoff matchups (such as Warriors vs. Grizzlies, Suns vs. Mavericks, and Raptors vs. Warriors), regional rivalries (such as Clippers vs. Lakers and Knicks vs. Nets), matchups involving player rivalries (such as Nets vs. 76ers and Nuggets vs. 76ers), and classic rivalries (such as Knicks vs. Celtics and Lakers vs. Celtics capping the week off).  Overall, it was a success because some of the games seemed to draw a viewing crowd.  They also had an immense amount of hype and discussion related to the games themselves (though the majority was due to a bad missed call at the end of regulation in the Lakers vs. Celtics game).  Overall, it appeared to be a hit and will be something that will likely return, but I have reservations about the future of it.

I would first like to discuss why I think the week was a massive success.  Ultimately, NBA game numbers have been down since the start of the Pandemic.  While there are several reasons that can be attributed to this, the easiest way to get more viewers during the middle of the regular season is to attach stakes to the games.  After years of teasing an in-season tournament (something I do not believe is a good idea or will be successful), they had several games that were played by rivals.  While some of these rivalries seemed a bit more manufactured than the NBA would likely like to admit (New York vs. Brooklyn only appears to be geographically based at this point and I’m still not buying that Toronto vs. Golden State or Memphis vs. Minnesota are actually rivalries), they had several natural and organic rivalry games played during the week.  The biggest reason this strategy is so successful is because these rivalries suggest that there is a story attached to the games.  For instance, in Denver vs. Philadelphia, which perennial MVP candidate will win between Nikola Jokic and Joel Embiid?  In a matchup of Philadelphia hosting Brooklyn, there is the Ben Simmons saga.  Memphis vs. Golden State provides a rivalry made from a younger rising team willing to trash talk against a dynasty.  All of these stories are enticing for basketball and has caused the NBA to have success on social media, though that hasn’t always translated to viewership.  Taking advantage of situations like these are exactly what the NBA needs to do to increase viewership, and I think this worked out so well for them.  Of course they dealt with players not being able to play due to injuries, which is bound to happen during the season.  There were also some stars held out for load management, but that is going to continue until teams treat players as individuals rather than as a collective where one way is the way to treat them.

While the week appeared to be a massive success, there is one major issue that I think will cause issues with this in the future:  transactions.  This year, the trade deadline is on February 9th, just two weeks after Rivals Week.  I think it worked out well since it likely will be a slower year at the deadline than most (we’ll see if Toronto or Chicago does anything drastic, but I don’t think we’ll see more than one major move combined between the two).  Since there were no major transaction rumors (with all due respect to players like Bojan Bogdanovic, OG Anunoby, and John Collins), there was no stories that would sway attention away from the activity on the court.  The reason that I point this out is because the attention has shifted away from the on-court action to the point where it wouldn’t surprise me if the majority of basketball fans don’t regularly watch full games (I do want to differentiate highlight reels vs. games in this situation).  I think having it so close to the trade deadline could cause issues in the future, but I’m not sure if there is another time to have it.  If it is after the trade deadline, the NBA runs the risk of including a rivalry game that involves a team who traded a player that made the matchup a rivalry.  If they move the week earlier in the season, the NBA loses the value of having a reason to watch regular season games in late-January.  Ultimately, I think it is the right time to have NBA Rivals Week, though I wouldn’t be surprised if future seasons do not have the same appeal as it appeared to have this season.

 

 

What did you think about NBA Rivals Week?  Were there any games you enjoyed?  Let me know in the comments!

 

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