It's time for the NBA to change its playoff format.
是时候改变季后赛的方程式了。
In 2015, the NBA made a relatively quiet change to its playoff structure, eliminating the automatic top-four seed for all division winners. The logic was, and remains, as sound as it is simple: Rewarding a lesser team for playing in a weaker division makes no sense. Why would rewarding a team from a lesser conference, or penalizing a team from a tougher conference for that matter, be any different?
2015年，NBA对季后赛赛制进行了一次微小的调整，取消了各赛区第一自动进入东西部前四的规定。背后的逻辑扎实又简单：给在一个弱小赛区的较差球队好处没有道理可言。在这个问题上，回馈较差分区实力较弱的球队和惩罚较强分区更强的球队，究竟有什么区别？
The idea of going to a straight 1-16 playoff seeding, regardless of conference, has been a hot-button topic among new-age fans for a while, if a back-burner one for the league. But it's moving to the forefront. Commissioner Adam Silver has addressed the possibility with increasing regularity, and urgency, of late. On Saturday, the Celtics and the Rockets gave us a thrilling glimpse into what a wide-open playoff bracket could look like with arguably the best game of the season.
即便联盟不重视，但无视东西部分区，直接按1到16号种子排名进行季后赛，已经是新一代球迷热议的话题。现在，这个话题终于走到了前台。总裁亚当·萧华最近强调了提高规范和紧迫性的可能。周六，凯尔特人和火箭用一场堪称赛季最佳的比赛，让我们初窥开放型季后赛的魅力。
"I've been saying this for like 10 years, man," two-time NBA champion and current TNT analyst Kenny Smith told CBS Sports at All-Star weekend. "NBA fans don't care [about conferences]. They want to see the best two teams playing in the Finals."
“老兄，10年了我一直这么说。”两届NBA总冠军，目前在TNT担任解说的肯尼·史密斯全明星周末期间接受CBS体育采访时表示，“NBA球迷不在乎(分区)，他们想看到最好的两支球队打总决赛。”
You can't argue this. There isn't a basketball fan on earth that doesn't want to see the best two teams going at it for the title. That's the purest part of sports. Now, you could say that in Cleveland and Golden State, we've gotten the best two teams in the Finals the last three years. You could even argue this is the case most years. What you can't argue is that the respective playoff roads traveled to get to that point have been anywhere near equal for close to 20 years.
这话没错。地球上还没有哪个球迷不愿意看到最好的两支球队争夺总冠军，那是体育最纯粹的部分。这种说法放在骑士和勇士身上是没错的，过去三年，我们看到了两支最优秀的球队在总决赛里竞争。你甚至可以说，大部分时候总决赛里都是两支最好的球队。但过去20年里，你不能说两支球队的总决赛之路难度是平等的。
With few exceptions, the West has been the collectively superior conference dating back as far as some of these young fans have been alive. Remember that 73-win Warriors team that lost in the Finals in 2016? It had to go through a seven-game basketball war with Oklahoma City in the conference finals. If the Thunder, who had a 3-1 series lead if you recall, would've gotten past the Warriors, that would've been even more egregious.
除了少数例外，从一些年轻球迷出生时起，西部球队的实力一直更为出众。还记得输掉2016年总决赛的73胜勇士吗？他们先是在西部决赛里七场大战突破了雷霆。如果你还记得，当时3比1领先的雷霆如果能击败勇士，那他们晋级总决赛所面临的难度相比较是更大的。
Meanwhile, the Cavs are a combined 36-5 in the Eastern Conference playoffs over the last three years. Not one team has posed an even halfway realistic threat to them. Naturally, LeBron James, who has reached seven straight Finals by way of the lesser conference, likes things the way they are.
与此同时，骑士过去三年在东部季后赛的总战绩为36胜5负，没有一支球队能够真正给他们带来威胁。自然而然，在较弱分区连续七年打进总决赛的勒布朗·詹姆斯希望保持现状。
Commissioner Adam Silver recently floated a proposal where the 16 teams would be seeded regardless of their conference.
联盟总裁亚当·萧华最近提出建议，抛开分区限制，16支球队直接排名。
James disagrees with the concept, mostly because it "changes the landscape of the history of the game." The three-time champion, who has played in seven straight Finals, noted that there have been junctures where one conference has dominated, but in the long run there has been balance."It's cool to mess around with the All-Star Game, we proved you can do that," said James, who picked an All-Star team this year under a new format. "But let's not get too crazy about the playoffs.”
詹姆斯不同意这个概念，很大程度上因为“这改变了比赛的历史状态”。三届总冠军，连续七次打进总决赛的詹姆斯提出，尽管某些分区实力更强，但从长远看，东西部实力是均衡的。“全明星做做调整没问题，我们证明了你们可以这么做。”詹姆斯说，按照今年的新规则，他得以挑选队友，“但在季后赛的问题上就别这么疯狂了。”
Again, it's pretty convenient that James feels this way. Admitting there needs to be change would be an indictment on his reaching those seven straight Finals. That's not a knock on LeBron, who in my opinion is the best player in history. It's just reality. There is no chance he goes to seven straight Finals in the West. Zero. Meanwhile, Chris Paul has been getting killed for years for never having made a conference finals appearance in his career. How many times would those Clippers teams have gone to the conference finals in the East? I'm guessing a few, at least.
再次强调，詹姆斯有这种想法很省事。承认有改变的需要，就是对自己连续七年打进总决赛的贬损。这不是贬低詹姆斯，在我看来他是历史上最优秀的球员。但这就是现实。如果在西部，他不可能连续七年进入总决赛。毫无机会！而克里斯·保罗却因为职业生涯未能进入分区决赛而饱受批评。如果在东部，快船能打进几次分区决赛？我猜至少能有几次吧。
There's that buzz word: Cyclical.
一个被经常提到的词就是：循环性。
Indeed, people are quick to point out the cyclical thing, saying it'll eventually turn around and the East will be the better conference. But I have to ask: what difference would that make? Don't you then just have the same problem only the reverse? The point is the pendulum almost never balances right in the middle. Change the playoffs to a straight 1-16 format, and you don't ever have to worry about this again.
人们确实会迅速指出循环性，比如说局势终究会转变，东部也可能会成为更好的分区。但我要问了：这又有什么区别呢？那时候难道不是问题反过来再次出现吗？问题的本质在于，钟摆几乎不会停留在中间。所以把季后赛改成1到16名球队直接对战，你就无需再考虑这些问题。
Another thing people love to say would be compromised with the elimination of conferences are these "rivalries." For starers, eliminating conferences wouldn't eliminate regional rivalries. The possibility to Philly matching up with Boston, for instance, is still in play. Besides that, aren't we overplaying this rivalry thing?
另一个人们喜欢提出的问题是，取消分区会威胁“宿敌”的存在。首先，取消分区并不会让区域间的宿敌消失。比如76人与凯尔特人仍然可能相遇。此外，我们是否过于看重宿敌这个问题了？
Fact is, the numbers don't lie. Per the NBA, three of the six highest-rated games this year have been inter-conference matchups -- two Cavs-Warriors matchups, which brought in just under 15 million combined viewers, and Boston vs. Golden State on Jan. 27, which brought in close to five million.
事实是，数字不会说谎。根据NBA的数据，今年收视率最高的六场比赛中，有三场是跨分区比赛：两场骑士与勇士的比赛吸引了接近1500万观众，而1月27日凯尔特人与勇士的比赛总收视人数也接近500万。
I've said in the past, the obstacle is travel. It's that as we've added an extra week to the regular season, as we've tried to reduce the number of back-to-backs, that we are concerned about teams crisscrossing the country in the first round, for example. We are just concerned about the overall travel that we would have in the top 16 teams.
过去我曾说，旅行是障碍所在。为此，常规赛时间现在延长了一周，而且尽量减少了背靠背比赛。现在我们开始担心出现球队在季后赛首轮就要横跨全美这种情况，担心16强的整体旅行距离。
Again, this is understandable. That's a lot of time in an airplane at the end of an already exhausting NBA season. That said, as Kenny Smith pointed out, "this whole thing started back when there were no chartered flights." Indeed, these days teams aren't exactly slumming it through hour-long security lines and squeezing into economy class.
再次强调，这是可以理解的。常规赛本就让人精疲力尽了，这意味着又要坐很久的飞机。但正如肯尼·史密斯所说，“联盟最初是没有专机的。”现在的球队无需在安检区排上几小时队再挤进经济舱。
"Listen, making things easy for these guys, I'm not a big proponent of," Charles Barkley said at All-Star weekend. "If Bill Russell and Dr. J and those guys can play three games in three nights in the worst tennis shoes ever invented, and fly commercial, or ride a bus, I think these guys can be inconvenienced a couple days a year to make $30 million and ride on a private jet.”
“听着，很多事已经轻松很多了。我不是很支持(长距离这个观点)。”查尔斯·巴克斯在全明星周末期间表示，“如果比尔·拉塞尔，J博士和其他人，他可以穿着最烂的网球鞋，坐经济舱或者坐大巴，连续三天打三场比赛。我觉得这些人为了挣3000万美元，坐私人飞机，他们一年可以不方便个几天。”
There are a lot of people who work for a living who would side with Barkley here, but here's the thing: There is a pretty easy way to solve this. You just go back to a 2-3-2 series format rather than the 2-2-1-1-1 format in place today. This would mean a series could only switch venues three times at most, whereas under the current format, if a series goes the full seven games, it will switch venues five times.
很多工薪族会支持巴克利的观点，但这里有一个问题：解决这个问题的方法很简单，回复2-3-2赛制，取消现在的2-2-1-1-1赛制。这意味着一个系列赛最多只会更换三次场地，按照现行赛制，如果系列赛打到七场，比赛举办地将会更换五次。
What does that look like from a miles-traveled standpoint? Under the current format, a Portland-Memphis series would represent the most potential miles traveled. If that series went seven, the lower-seeded team would travel 11,220 miles. Now, if you eliminate conferences, the most extreme matchup from a miles-traveled standpoint would be Portland vs. Miami. If you played that series under a 2-3-2 format, and it went seven games, the lower-seeded team would travel 9,765 miles.
旅行距离上该如何理解？按照现行赛制，开拓者和灰熊的对阵意味着最长旅行距离。如果双方系列赛打到第七场，排名较低球队的旅行距离将达到11220英里。如果取消分区，那么最极端的旅行距离将出现在开拓者和热火之间。如果按照2-3-2赛制，那么排名较低球队即便打满七场，旅行距离也只有9765英里。
In other words, the NBA could seed the playoffs 1-16, and with a simple tweak to the individual series format, actually REDUCE the amount of travel required of teams.
换句话说，按照战绩1到16排名，对系列赛赛制做出小调整，实际上能减少球队的旅行距离。
The travel problem is real.
旅行的问题真实存在。
But it can be solved.
但完全可以解决。
So, will this actually happen?
所以说，这会真的发生吗？
In short, yes. It might take a while, but there's too much momentum starting to gather behind the idea. Opening up the possibility for fresh, new matchups throughout every round of the playoffs, in addition to paving the way for the ultimate goal of pitting the two best teams against one another for the title, is too potentially fruitful to turn away. Plus, it's just the right thing to do from a competitive balance standpoint.
简单地说，会。这可能需要一段时间，但这个想法背后有太多的动力，值得我们去尝试。每一轮季后赛开启全新的对阵，加上能够让两支最好的球队会师总决赛，这个结果美好得让人无法拒绝。此外，从竞争平衡角度说，这也是该做的事。
Now, we have to point out that to make this thing completely equitable, you can't just change the playoff structure; you have to change the regular-season schedule, too. Right now, teams play three or four games against each team in their own conference, and two games against the opposite. The Timberwolves, for instance, have to play the Warriors and Rockets a combined seven times this year. The Cavs only have to play them four. It's not exactly fair to seed teams 1-16 when half those teams had a considerably easier path to earning those seeds.
需要指出的是，想真正公平，需要改变的不止是季后赛结构，常规赛赛制也需要改变。目前，球队与同一赛区的球队一赛季交手三到四次，与另一分区的球队交手两次。比如森林狼，本赛季需要和勇士及火箭交手七次，而骑士和这两支球队只需要交手四次。对于1到16号种子，这不算公平，毕竟有半数球队赢得排位时的难度比另外一半要小。
Of the four major American sports, the NBA is by far the most progressive league. It has changed its lottery structure to de-incetivize tanking. It changed its All-Star Game selection process and removed conference affiliation because the whole thing had turned into a circus. As mentioned earlier, it stopped the practice of rewarding teams with automatic home-court advantage in the playoffs for winning weaker divisions.
北美四大体育联盟中，NBA到目前为止是最为开明的。他们为了减少摆烂现象而改变了乐透规则。因为全明星已经变得像马戏团一样可笑，他们改变了选拔机制，取消了分区制度。前文也提过，他们取消了较弱赛区头名自动获得季后赛主场优势的奖励。
It's going to change.
事情一定会改变。
And it can't happen soon enough.
再早也不嫌早。
