Breaking down NBA Finals Scheduling

The NBA Finals started on May 30 but a potential game 7 wouldn't be until June 16. That seemed really drawn out to me. So I thought it warranted a look back to see how the schedules got drawn out over time.

To do this, I'll look at some 7 game series and how many total days they were scheduled for:

2019: 18
2016: 18
2005: 15
1994: 15
1984: 17
1978: 17
1974: 15
1960: 14
1955: 11

(Fun Fact about 1955 Finals. The Fort Wayne Pistons made the finals but their arena was booked so their Finals home games were played in Indianapolis. Also, They played a game in Syracuse on April 2 and then in Indianapolis on April 3! The Pistons would move to Detroit in 1957.)

- - -

If you just played every other day, you could finish in 13 days.

Here's what it would look like if you played every other day plus a travel day:

Day 1
Day 3
Day 6
Day 8
Day 11
Day 14
Day 17

The NBA basically does this now, except there is an additional day gap between game 1 and game 2.

Here are the days of the week broken down by 2019 Finals games:

Thursday: 2
Sunday: 2
Wednesday: 1
Friday: 1
Monday: 1

Sure seems like the NBA doesn't want to play Finals games on Saturdays.

- - -

I thought the 2005 schedule warranted a closer look as it was the most recent (modern) 15 day schedule. It followed the 2-3-2 schedule.

Day 1 - Thursday
Day 4 - Sunday (travel)
Day 6 - Tuesday
Day 8 - Thursday
Day 11 - Sunday (travel)
Day 13 - Tuesday
Day 15 - Thursday

Clearly this schedule was driven by the belief that the day of the week was the most important factor. Both times the series switched cities there was only a 2-day gap. But the series also included two 3-day gaps covering non-travel days, to avoid Saturdays.

- - -

There's nothing inherently wrong with today's schedule, I just think the extra days are annoying, breaking up the rhythm of the series. If I were to design a schedule it would include the following restrictions:

Only 2-day gaps between games 1 and 2, games 3 and 4.
3-day gaps for travel aren't mandatory as proven by the 2005 schedule.
And to please the NBA, no Saturdays.

Here's a nice 14-day option:

Here's a slight variant that starts a day earlier, allowing for an extra travel day after the first city.

Nice flow, eh?

HC Housekeeping

A few notes about the blog itself.

First up, it always bothered me how I left the Denver Burrito Search unfinished. I had a two-way tie at the top and planned to go back to both one more time to declare a winner. Well, I had two years in Denver and never did it and then moved away. So this week I went back and declared a winner.

In going through the site looking for other series, I realized I hadn't done a Fav Five in a while so I fixed that.

And last, I'm excited about my personal 2020 Census project. In 2010 I took stock of where I stand on lots of things and it's fun to see how I change and grow. Here's what I'll be looking at in 2020:

• favorite bands
• favorite albums by my favorite bands (plus top ten favorite albums)
• favorite foods
• favorite movies
• favorite video games
• favorite books
• favorite hobbies
• favorite sports teams
• projecting my personal future in 2030
• predicting 2030 on a world/society scale

also these weren't a part of the 2010 census, but I did rank sitcoms in 2013. I should add favorite tv shows for 2020

Chiefs Fav Five: 2019

It's been a while since I've done this. Not only is it fun, but it creates a great time capsule. None of my favorite Chiefs players from 2015 are on the team anymore. But hey, there are some new ones to put on!

Let's go through the roster

Travis Kelce
Mitchell Schwartz (first ever OL to even get honorable mention from me)
Patrick Mahomes (shocker)
Darwin Thompson (Damien Williams is good so I like him, but I have high hopes for the 6th round pick)
(WR is wide open. Sammy Watkins has a chance this year to join the club.)
Chris Jones
Tyrann Mathieu (Despite him not playing a snap for the Chiefs yet. Frank Clark will take time to earn this)
Juan Thornhill (another rookie)
(I also have hopes for a UDFA for the first time, Gary Johnson to make the roster. Mostly because he's a Johnson LB out of Texas.)
Harrison Butker


(2019 Training Camp Update: I'm already more excited about Mecole Hardman than Sammy Watkins. Watkins is the better player obviously, but it's fun to get excited about a rookie. Likewise, still very jazzed about Darwin Thompson. I know it's rare for rookies to actually turn into all-stars, but still.)

This was tougher than I thought. I like so many Chiefs players, but favorites, those are harder to come by.

5. Butker
4. Mathieu
3. Jones
2. Kelce
1. Mahomes

Sharks beat Avs in 7

I don't really need to go into any detail when this does a pretty good job. 

Just figured I would say something so that years from now when I'm looking through Hoagie Central for Avs playoff stuff, I'll at least have this post.

Sports Market Analysis

In writing the previous post, I stumbled across this handy chart of the top 52 sports markets by size.

For the purposes of this post, I will use the chart's definition of 4 major sports. Here are some interesting nuggets:

Houston is the largest market without a team in all 4 sports. There are 7 markets smaller than have a team in all 4 sports.

Denver is the smallest market with a team in all 4 sports. There are 4 markets bigger that are missing at least one sport.

NY and LA are the only markets where every sport has at least two teams. New York's hockey market is the only one in the country with 3 teams.

Seattle at #13 in the country is the largest 2-team market. #52 Buffalo is the smallest 2-team market.

Orlando at #18 in the country is the largest 1-team market. It's basically the same size as Denver which has 4 teams.

New Orleans and Buffalo are lucky to have 2 teams, based on their size.

Tampa and Orlando are a little over an hour away from each other. The only sport Tampa is missing is the NBA and that's all Orlando has. Match made in heaven.

Seattle should get a NBA and NHL team.

Measuring the Popularity of Sports

What's the best way to measure a sport's popularity? Let's start with average viewers on national broadcasts.

If you were looking at that chart, would you say there are 3, 4 or 5 major sports? To me it looks like there's 1 major sport.

Here's an interesting chart of peak events, by sports:

(I even went back to the 2017 list to see a MLS peak, but soccer peak that year was a US-Mexico qualifier.)

The bottom line is that football dominates everything. NBA is ahead of MLB. College football and basketball are still doing well. And NHL and MLS are really in the same tier as NASCAR and golf and the rest. 

Sources:

https://www.sportsmediawatch.com/2018/04/nhl-viewership-nbc-nbcsn-regular-season/
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/u-sport-had-highest-viewership-141700953.html

Creative Insticts

This is a brief follow-up to this post, my best post of 2018.

I've noticed that whenever I see or hear something that impresses me, my first instinct is that I should create my own version.

I listen to Radiolab and I think I should become a radio journalist. That I should get some audiorecorders and start making my own long-form stories.

I remember fondly the Oregon Trail game from the 90s and think that I should make a modern version. I find programming sites and jump into coding.

...

And then I realize that I don't really want to make my own Radiolab. I just think they're really good at what they do.

There's moments where I want to do X and moments for Y and Z, and on and on, but I don't have time or energy (or the skills and resources) to do everything. So I often have to take a step back and focus on what I really want to do.

...it's an ongoing struggle where I often lack clarity.