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March 20, 2020 By: Terry Frei

A last resort proposal to crown 2019-20 NBA and NHL champions

Here’s my highly conditional, last-resort proposal about how to crown NBA and NHL champions for the 2019-20 seasons.

Every day, with the flood of horrific news, with additional mandates modifying everyday life here and around the world, with previous timetables becoming obsolete, it becomes more apparent that even what I’m about to propose likely is going to be impossible. Every move going forward must continue to include the component of erring on the side of caution.

Redirecting focus to 2020-21 might be the best-case scenario. That’s because of not only the direct health implications, but the staggering allocation of resources to react to coronavirus and the ripple-effect economic toll involved.

That’s all part of emphasizing: This is way, way, way down the list of concerns.

Of course, this proposal would only be possible if public health and other officials deem it safe enough to return to the ice and hardwood — and to do it with full houses of spectators.

But if it somehow becomes possible soon enough to crown NBA and NHL champions for 2019-20 …

Do it with a pair of 16-team single-elimination interwoven tournaments. Win, you advance. Lose, you’re done. Every game is Game 7. Kind of like March Madness.

End them with the Larry O’Brien Trophy Championship Game one night, the Stanley Cup Championship Game the next.

NHL teams have from 11 to 14 games remaining on their regular-season schedules. NBA teams have from 15 to 19. Resuming the seasons, playing those games and then staging full — or even scaled-down — playoffs won’t be possible or practical.

But leave the doors slightly ajar.

Many NHL and NBA teams share arenas. Depending on definition of markets — e.g., are the San Jose Sharks and Golden State Warriors in the same market? — there are 14 markets with teams in both leagues. A few — including the Knicks and Rangers, Wizards and Capitals, Nuggets and Avalanche, and Raptors and Maple Leafs — have common principal ownership.

So they’re in it together, and there should be a task force made up of representatives from both leagues to confer, plus consider and ultimately formulate an exit strategy from the shutdowns. Players from both leagues now have tested positive. It involves so many other factors, of course, and might include geographic variables, but clearance to resume play likely will be simultaneous.

Declare the regular-seasons over and the current standings the basis for playoff qualification. If and when they start. That’s flawed and unfair in some cases. The most prominent example would be the New York Islanders, who are one point out of the final Eastern Conference playoff spot while having played two fewer games than No. 8 Columbus.

But this wasn’t a conspiracy.

Sixteen teams in each league would know they might return to have chances to win the championship trophies and rings. Fourteen NBA teams and 15 NHL teams know they’re done.

Set a final cutoff date for the clearance to be able to get the teams involved back in and get them ready for, and then play a bare-bones postseason. It also has to be soon enough to give the players in both leagues a genuine offseason after playing in the tournaments.

The NHL went without a Stanley Cup champion in 2005 because of the lockout season. There’s even a more direct precedent: There was no champion in 1919. The series matching the NHL’s Montreal Canadiens and the Pacific Coast Hockey Association’s Seattle Metropolitans to decide the Cup winner was canceled after five games because of an influenza epidemic. Each team had won two games, and there also was a 0-0 tie. Canadiens defenseman Joe Hall died in a Seattle hospital four days after the cancellation, of pneumonia tied to the flu.

MLB went without a World Series champion in 1994 after the leagues shut down in August because of the player strike. Retroactively, we now know there was no 2017 World Series champion, either.

So if there are no champions, that’s just the way it is.

But here’s the quick format, with the NBA and NHL dividing up the nights, that could be the standard for the last resort. An option could be to add it to the front of next season, but that would feel empty. Playing it soon enough to have the legitimate feel of a culmination to this season should be that standard. Again, that’s unlikely to be possible, but I’m still plowing on.

One alternative is to keep the series formats, but shorten them to best-of-three. The other modification could be to include all teams in the tournaments, giving two NBA teams and one NHL team byes, otherwise using a seeded 32-team bracket with five wins required to win the titles. But single elimination is the most practical possibility, and while there would be short turnarounds and travel plans made on the fly, the leagues can pull it off in this era of chartered planes and computerized ticket sales.

A single-season contrivance? OK. It would not be a celebration, but at least it would be part catharsis. I get it: Part of the Stanley Cup’s magic is that it requires such relentlessness and resilience through four rounds. But the trophy was as coveted when the league had six teams and played only two rounds. And these would be special circumstances.

So here’s the way it could work, and my “results” aren’t so much predictions, but provide examples of how the bracket would evolve through the single-game, single-elimination format. I’m using a straight bracket, minus reseeding after each round, for both leagues. I also know there could be television network and arena complications, so I’m tossing this out only as a possible framework.

SATURDAY
NBA first round
E8 Orlando at E1 Milwaukee
E5 Indiana at E4 Miami
W7 Dallas at W2 LA Clippers
W6 Houston at W3 Denver

SUNDAY
NBA first round
E7 Brooklyn at E2 Toronto
E6 Philadelphia at E3 Boston
W8 Memphis at W1 LA Lakers
W5 Oklahoma City at W4 Utah

MONDAY
NHL first round
E8 Columbus at E1 Boston
E5 Pittsburgh at E4 Philadelphia
W7 Calgary at W2 Colorado
W6 Winnipeg at W3 Vegas

TUESDAY
NHL first round
E7 Carolina at E2 Tampa Bay
E6 Toronto at E3 Washington
W8 Nashville at W1 St Louis
W5 Dallas at W4 Edmonton

WEDNESDAY
NBA conference semifinals
E4 Miami at E1 Milwaukee
W3 Denver at W2 LA Clippers

THURSDAY
NBA conference semifinals
E3 Boston at E2 Toronto
W5 Oklahoma City at W1 LA Lakers

FRIDAY
NHL conference semifinals
E5 Pittsburgh at E1 Boston
E3 Washington at E2 Tampa Bay

SATURDAY
NHL conference semifinals
W8 Nashville at W4 Edmonton
W3 Vegas at W2 Colorado

SUNDAY
NBA conference finals
E2 Toronto at E1 Milwaukee
W2 LA Clippers at W1 LA Lakers

MONDAY
NHL conference finals
E5 Pittsburgh at E2 Tampa Bay
W4 Edmonton at W2 Colorado

WEDNESDAY
NBA Larry O’Brien Trophy Championship Game
W2 LA Clippers at E1 Milwaukee
CHAMPION: Milwaukee

THURSDAY
NHL Stanley Cup Championship Game
E2 Tampa Bay at W2 Colorado
CHAMPION: Colorado

We at least would have champions.

About Terry: Terry Frei is the author of seven books. His novels are Olympic Affair and The Witch’s Season, and among his five non-fiction works are Horns, Hogs, and Nixon Coming; Third Down and a War to Go; and ’77: Denver, the Broncos, and a Coming of Age. Information is available on his web site, terryfrei.com. His woodypaige.com archive can be found here.