The NBA created a meaningless trophy for finest common season staff nobody will respect

The t-shirts worn by Michael Jordan and Scottie Pippen stated it finest again in 1996: their record-breaking common season “don’t imply a factor with out the ring.” Ever since, the NBA has been outlined by “rings culture,” the concept that staff and particular person accomplishments are principally meaningless if there’s no championship to again them up. It’s why “the Warriors blew a 3-1 lead” will probably be remembered as a very powerful a part of Golden State’s 73-9 marketing campaign again in 2015-2016. Season-long stats come and go, however banners grasp ceaselessly.

There’s solely downside with rings tradition: it leaves 29 groups and 29 fanbases feeling unhappy. The NBA has been quietly preventing to make every thing that occurs earlier than the NBA Finals really feel extra vital, whether or not it’s toying with a midseason match or creating convention finals MVP awards that debuted final season. Now the NBA has one other new trophy it’s planning to roll out: The Maurice Podoloff Trophy given to the staff with one of the best common season document. The league introduced the brand new trophy, together with a couple of others honoring sportsmanship, teammates, and extra, in a press launch on Tuesday.

“The trophy features a crystal ball cut into 82 panels, sitting on a pedestal that combines the structures of the Eastern Conference posts and Western conference rings,” the NBA wrote in a press launch. It’s a cool trophy, however it feels prefer it’s solely going to result in extra jokes for the groups that win this “award” however fail to win the championship.

It was embarrassing sufficient to observe the Phoenix Suns waste a league-best 64-win common season earlier than getting upset within the second spherical of the playoffs final season to the Dallas Mavericks. Now think about if the playoffs opened with Chris Paul holding up a trophy for a daily season award. The meme potential is just off the charts.

Jokes apart, the thought of rewarding and commemorating extra than simply the championship is a superb thought in idea — it simply feels so laborious to drag off in observe. International soccer is after all filled with trophies golf equipment can win even when they’re not the ultimate staff standing of their league, and it helps groups and followers really feel achieved even with out a ring. It’s a pleasant option to disincentivize tanking, which the NBA rightly loathes.

If “the The Maurice Podoloff Trophy” sounds acquainted, that’s as a result of it’s additionally the identify of the league’s MVP trophy. It positive looks as if the MVP trophy goes to get a rebranding within the close to future, too.

Kudos to the NBA for exploring new concepts and attempting to push the league past rings tradition. Maybe it’ll repay within the long-term. In the brief time period, it’ll in all probability principally be good for newer and extra inventive memes. That’s not so dangerous, both.