To The NBA Schedule... Straight Flexin' Needed

Everyone who looks forward to Christmas Day basketball found a lump of coal in their stocking. The games were not very good despite on paper in October looking like five fantastic matchups. Brooklyn-Chicago was derailed by no Derrick Rose and a piss poor Brooklyn team. Oklahoma City-New York did not live up to its billing due to no Carmelo Anthony on an already pathetic New York Knicks team. Los Angeles Lakers are without Kobe Bryant, but thankfully, they had Swaggy P and LeBron James' dunks to keep people entertained in the third game. But people were still mad about the games.



ESPN's own staff, Bill Simmons and Jalen Rose, talked about how flexing games in lieu to the pathetic teams playing on Christmas. Reggie Miller had a tweet saying Portland, Phoenix and Indiana are teams that should have been playing on Christmas Day. I hate to break it to the pundits, but not playing on Christmas Day is a relief for some players as they get to spend a couple days away from basketball and with their family. They cannot just say in early December... PORTLAND!  INDIANA!  ABC CHRISTMAS DAY!!!!!!!  That just cannot happened, but we can change the NBA schedule for the month of January.

This needs to happen with where we are with the Eastern Conference as well as how bad Brooklyn and
New York are right now. As you will see with the schedule, there are two primetime games with Cleveland and Utah plus a bunch of horrific Nets and Knicks games. NBA commissioner David Stern can close out his career by creating a new-age flex system.  Couple things to think about here...

-If the game is at a different time, ESPN, TNT or ABC can probably move it with notice or play the game at that time. This is a real simple fix honestly.

- The NBA can make the call on flexing games on Sunday of the week before meaning they could chose a hot team or keep a game if there is a streak involved. Further if a team on their flex radar starts fading off, they can make a keep or chose another game.

- Unless the game is going to ABC, local broadcasts can still have the game as well. They can blackout ESPN or TNT in the local markets therefore ratings are not taken away.

- If a team is seven or more games under .500, they should not be featured... Period. New York and Brooklyn do not drive the meter for any NBA fan right now. Anthony is a great player, fine, but I will not rush to my television to see them. If I get more Portland or Indiana in primetime, I will be watching without question.

To indicate how bad it has been this season, here are days and games where they need a flex.

Friday January 10th 
Miami at Brooklyn 7:00 pm.
Potential Flex Games - Indiana at Washington, Dallas at New Orleans, Phoenix at Memphis

Wednesday January 14th
Utah at San Antonio 7:00 pm
Potential Flex Games - Toronto at Boston, Miami at Washington

Friday January 17th
LA Clippers at New York 6:00 pm
Potential Flex Games - Portland at San Antonio (No real reason why this happens honestly)

Monday January 19th
Brooklyn at New York 1:30 pm...
Potential Flex Games - LA Clippers at Detroit, Miami at Atlanta

LA Lakers at Chicago 7:00 pm...
Potential Flex Games - Portland at Houston

Wednesday January 21st
Chicago at Cleveland 6:00 pm
Potential Flex Games - Indiana at Phoenix -

Friday January 24th
LA Clippers at Chicago 7:00 pm.
Potential Flex Games - San Antonio at Atlanta, Oklahoma City at Boston

Sunday January 26th
LA Lakers at New York 2:30 pm....
Potential Flex Games - Portland at Golden State (C'mon ABC, pleeeeeeeassee)

Brooklyn at Boston 5:30 pm...
Potential Flex Games - Detroit at Dallas

Thursday January 30th
Cleveland at New York 7:00 pm.
Potential Flex Games - Phoenix at Indiana

Friday January 31st
Oklahoma City at Brooklyn 7:00 pm.
Potential Flex Games - Toronto at Denver

Golden State at Utah 9:30 pm
Potential Flex Games - Charlotte at LA Lakers (This is where it has gotten with the NBA. I would rather watch Bobcats instead of Utah).

NBA is a cruel world, and they still want New York on television. But this needs to end. I understand the league wants to diverse group of teams instead of a small few. But still this could open it up for more teams to get more primetime attention.

Charlie.