If Sac-town were put into the 'Shaq' division, I think they'd forfeit the season in protest. On the mighty Mississippi: Once Charlotte's move to New Orleans became official, both Minnesota and Memphis petitioned the league to replace the Hornets in the Eastern Conference. Obviously, the requests were denied. But look for the Hornets to join the Western Conference soon. It's probably just a matter of time before a Charlotte expansion franchise is awarded to the group that includes Larry Bird. When that happens, the NBA will have an even 30 teams and will likely realign into six five-team divisions. Here is the best guess on how they figure to line up. In honor of the old NHL, we've named the divisions for prominent NBA personalities: Auerbach division: Boston, New Jersey, New York, Philadelphia, Toronto. Riley division: Atlanta, Charlotte, Miami, Orlando, Washington. Jordan division: Bulls, Cleveland, Detroit, Indiana, Milwaukee. Cuban division: Dallas, Houston, Memphis, New Orleans, San Antonio. Layden division: Denver, Minnesota, Portland, Seattle, Utah. Shaq division: Clippers, Lakers, Golden State, Phoenix, Sacramento. http://www.dailyherald.com/sports/main_story.asp?intID=37536111
And your proof is.....? This list is the Pacific Division less the Blazers and Sonics. The Kings won't play the Faker$ more than 4 times during the regular season regardless of realignment.
The names are silly. Why are they naming the rust-belt towns' division the Jordan division when Jordan himself is currently playing in the Riley division? How would the playoffs work with 6 divisions of 5 teams each? Or would you still have the 2 conferences and the same 16-team format?
To be fair...the author just came up with some names. I don't think it would ever work because of politicking if it became a real-life thing. They'd also go old-school and name them the West, the Erving, the Chamberlain and so on divisions.
WTF!!! I know it's a joke, but if that ever happens, I would not watch another NBA game until they remove that name. Cuban sucks!!!
Do you guys put much stock in the idea they'd convert to the six-division system? Seems to me it'd be easier just to give two divisions seven teams and two divisions eight.
I think that makes more sense, since divisions don't mean much in the NBA anyway. Besides, why would you not put Washington with Philadelphia, NJ. NY, and Boston? And Memphis should belong with Atlanta and Charlotte. Then all you have to do is get Toronto to move to Little Rock, and everything is A-O-K. Seriously though, unless the NBA changed playoff format (which it really should), there's no point to realignment. Even with 30 teams, over have the NBA still makes it to the playoffs. I mean, your team has to be pretty bad not to make it. They might as well just expand to 32 teams and then make the playoffs all 32 teams. I mean, it's all about home-court-advantage anyway right?
