If the National Basketball Association‘s season does not restart this year, the league could crown a champion without the benefits of a playoff system to determine the winner.
Nothing in the NBA bylaws prevents the league and its owners from voting on a league champ for the 2019-2020 season, The New York Times reports. The league has crowned a titleholder every year since the first championship series in 1947 when the Philadelphia 76ers vanquished the Chicago Stags.
As Commissioner Adam Silver told “NBA on TNT” host Ernie Johnson on April 6: “We are in listening mode right now.”
But which team could possibly be named champion? And, by extension, who would be the league MVP, defensive player of the year, coach of the year, and so forth?
The Milwaukee Bucks have the best record in the NBA at 53-12, while the Los Angeles Lakers have the most wins in the Western Conference at 49-14.
LeBron James and the Lakers were surging just before the league lockdown in March as they defeated their two most formidable opponents — the Bucks and crosstown rivals L.A. Clippers — in consecutive games on the last weekend before the season shut down indefinitely.
However, Kawhi Leonard, Paul George and the Clippers were right on the Lakers’ heels with a 44-20 record.
The league has been in suspension mode ever since Utah Jazz center Rudy Gobert became the first person in the NBA to contract the coronavirus in early March.
So, which team would be crowned if the NBA never resumes its season? The New York Times said we “can “safely assume” that a champion would not be determined through a vote.
Unless the social distancing guidelines are relaxed later this year, ESPN’s Brian Windhorst theorizes there will not be enough time to complete the season. The prospect of the NBA picking or voting for a champion seems highly unlikely.
