The Los Angeles Lakers’ LeBron James said on Sunday night that the league forces behind a playoff play-in tournament “should be fired.” Weeks before James voiced his displeasure, Mark Cuban, who voted for the play-in as the owner of the Dallas Mavericks, called the concept an “enormous mistake.”
I say they’re both wrong, and see the race to set up the N.B.A.’s play-in round from May 18 to 21 as the most invigorating aspect of a dour, draining, pandemic-skewed season.
The idea here, though, is not to dwell on James or Cuban, two of the league’s most outspoken figures.