The pros and cons of the NBA AwardsÂ
For as long as fans can remember, the NBA MVP was always announced during round 2 of the NBA Playoffs aka the Conference Semifinals. But last year, in its 71st season of existence, the NBA decided to change things up and have a proper show where awards would be handed out.
Not only did the NBA take a leaf out of the NFL's book but they also made a calculated move to stretch out the NBA broadcast calendar well into the offseason. The NFL has had a similar show for years now to keep American Football fans interested between the end of the regular season and the Super Bowl.
While that move seemed to benefit the NFL, the same move drew some criticism from NBA fans and players alike. Why? Simply put, the NFL doesn't have the long season that the NBA has. Even more simply put - NFL fans don't have to wait 3+ months to know who their MVP for the season is!
The 2nd Annual NBA Awards just concluded a few hours ago. Before we get into debating who deserved to be a winner, let's assess if the award show in itself is a winner or a loser.
#1 Pro: The award show makes things more streamlined for fans
In the years before 2017, fans had to scramble to see who won what award over a period of 2-3 days with trophies being handed out individually to winners at different locations and times.
Most fans just ending up watching the presentation of the top 3 awards - MVP, Defensive Player of the Year and Coach of the Year. The lesser awards always went unnoticed - Most Improved Player, Sixth Man of the Year, Teammate of the Year, etc. Most publications also led with news around the top awards and left out the others.
True fans of the game deserve a holistic experience when it comes to the end of the year awards. These NBA Awards finally give fans the bigger picture that they have been yearning for - they see one show and come away with all the winners. This means no more having to search the web for the entire list of winners and subsequently searching for presentation videos of each winner on YouTube.