NBA fans were quite displeased with the rather bland look of the NBA Finals courts during Game 1 on Thursday night—so much so that it was a big topic on social media during the contest. Although the league used to adorn the championship courts with a Finals script decal and/or a giant graphic of the Larry O’Brien trophy, among other logos, such decor has mostly disappeared within the last ten years, allegedly due to safety concerns.
But fans felt that there was nothing on the hardwood or around the arena on Thursday night that signified this was the championship series, the Super Bowl of basketball and the biggest stage the NBA has to offer. And as the league office continues to debate and contend with TV ratings, perhaps the Finals viewing experience is something they should consider tweaking.
League commissioner Adam Silver said he was open to as much on Friday, during an NBA Cares charity event in Oklahoma City.
“Maybe there’s a way around it,” Silver told a small group of reporters, per The Athletic‘s Sam Amick. “To be honest, I hadn’t thought all that much about it until I [saw] it [on social media]. I’m nostalgic, as well, for certain things. And also, I think for a media-driven culture, whether it’s people watching live or seeing those images on social media, it’s nice when you’re looking back on highlights and they stand out because you see that trophy logo or some other indication that it’s a special event. So, we’ll look at it.”
As some fans pointed out on Thursday, it felt nonsensical that the league would go all-out on court decorations for the in-season Emirates NBA Cup and not offer at least some of that fanfare for the Finals. On Friday, Silver said that the difference there isn’t necessarily for lack of trying; it has a lot to do with logistics, as well.
“In the case of the Cup, of course, we have the opportunity to plan well in advance and to design a specific neutral court for a Cup championship game,” Silver said. “And the teams design their own Cup courts. It actually takes a significant amount of time to create new courts in terms of how they’re painted, et cetera.
“One of the reasons we moved away from the logos on the courts is—whether it was perception or reality—there was a sense that maybe the logos added some slipperiness to the court, and it was a change sort of on the court that was coming just at the time of the Finals. … Maybe it’s for superstitious reasons or just a sense from teams that we shouldn’t be changing things around such important competition. That’s largely why we stopped putting the logos on the court.”
So maybe there is input from the teams at play here. Regardless, it sounds like the league is open to changing things up in the future. Cross your fingers.
