If I Was the Commissioner

By Shaebaun "Suge" Benjamin

It's been a little slow here at Hard Magazine because I'm getting ready for a two week vacation and finding plane tickets for the right price is getting to be a pain, but, here is my bit for the week.

I was watching a show on NBATV called Open Court that features former NBA players discussing different topics in an open forum. 

One question posed by the moderator Ernie Johnson was what each person would change about the NBA if he were the commissioner. That got me thinking about what I would change about the NBA, but, then I thought about other sports as well.

I can't really discuss hockey though I am a huge New York Rangers fan but I will talk about the other major sports as well as MLS since soccer is getting ever so popular on this side of the Atlantic.

NFL

Let's start with the nation's most popular sport beginning with the offseason.

I would make the NFL Combine a two week to month long event and make it televised so that when you watch the draft or undrafted free agent pick ups, you could say "I remember that kid benched 8 plates for 25 reps" or "that guy ran faster than every dude picked."

I would make the NFL season still be 16 games but add in another bye week so there would be 18 weeks in a season. 

I don't know about adding to the playoffs unless maybe adding two wild cards and giving the four division winners a bye but then the two top seeds in the conference would have two full weeks off and then if they were to make it to the Super Bowl have another two weeks off, that would mean three football games played in a month and a half. It doesn't really work in college football and would elongate the NFL season.

One thing I would change in the postseason is dropping the Pro Bowl altogether. One idea that may be possible is replacing it with a sort of a consolation game between the NFC and AFC runner-ups. The World Cup does it. Not only could it be popular but also be real football with no restrictions whatsoever with players still bitter that they didn't make it to the big game.

NBA

The NBA season should start on Christmas Eve and end sometime in July. I would also lower the amount of the games from 82 to 66 which could reduce some injuries.

When I say I would start the season on Christmas Eve, all games would be against divisional opponents or teams that are only two or less hours flight time from each other like Dallas and OKC or Nets and Knicks.

Fourth of July would be the first day of the Finals. Having the Finals in July would kill the idea of July being the most boring sports month. The draft and free agency would start right after Finals.

 Draft night would be the day after the scheduled Game 7 date and free agency would start right after the Finals and the amount of exclusive time a team has with their own player is cut from 10 days to 5. The reason for this is that with a salary cap, the amount of teams a player can choose from is as little as 2 or 3 anyhow.

Instead of a Trade Deadline I would have 2 two week long trade windows much like in international soccer they have transfer windows. You'd have the entire offseason until the start of the season to make trades, then the week of and after the All Star break and the two weeks leading to the playoffs.

I also agree with Adam Silver attempting to make All Star Weekend a week long affair. It would be fun for the host city much like the two weeks before the Super Bowl. For the players it would be extra rest. For front offices it would be time to prepare for the trade windows.

To fill in time that week, I would make the Rookie/Sophomore game a four team tournament over three days and the other All Star festivities filled in between.

MLB

Now to my favorite sport. I don't really like the commissioner we have as is. I also will not discuss the involvement of PED's, if you want to hear my thoughts on that read here. 

I have no problem with the All Star Game being played for homefield advantage in the World Series. The system before was nonsense. The homefield was alternated every other year so basically people's arguments against it and wanting the old institution is "I hope my team makes it to the World Series in an odd number year" against "I hope my team's league wins the All Star Game so if we get to the World Series games 1 & 7  is at our park." I do wish that they'd get rid of the "every team has to be represented" rule. There's no rule like that in the Pro Bowl and each conference has 50 or so players opposed to the 35 in baseball.

They could also add a few more events to the festivities aside from the Home Run Derby. Pitching Accuracy, Outfield Arm Strength, and Baserunning Races would be nice.

Something that irked me was a game played the night before the All Star Break. The Yankees lost to the Orioles in a rain shortened game, 3-1. The Yankees are currently in second place in the AL East. If they end the season one game behind Baltimore we can look back at this game and say these two teams play each other 19 times and MLB wants to emphasize winning the division rather than getting in as a wild card so why didn’t they play out that game another time. I would make it so that any intra-divisional game cannot be called after 5 innings due to rain or any other reason. The game will be subject to be suspended and be resumed at a later date.

Draft picks should only be connected to players somewhat if at all. No team should have to forfeit draft picks to sign players, teams that lose players should gain compensatory picks without the team gaining the players losing picks.

Other small things such as having a few more day games during the playoffs would be nice for kids to become more interested in the sport. I remember watching the 2003 and 2004 ALCS's at age 13 & 14 and having stay up as late as 1:00am and 2:00am to watch my Yankees play which is crazy for a freshman in high school let alone a kid in elementary or middle school.

MLS

If you are still with me, bear with me if you have little interest in MLS or soccer in general. The sport has grown from 10 teams and many ups and downs to a 19 team league. By 2017 there will be 23 teams.

International stars such as David Beckham and Thierry Henry have played in the MLS as well as our country's own stars like Clint Dempsey and Landon Donovan.

My ideas for this league, unlike the others, are how to make the league grow and not fix flaws. 

I would continue to add teams, mostly in the under populated midwest as there are only teams in the Chicago and Kansas City. Perhaps in St. Louis, Oklahoma City, and Minnesota. The south will have teams in Orlando, Miami, and Atlanta soon.

The league institutes a designated player rule where a player can be signed with a salary that doesn't count against the salary cap with many restrictions as to who fits the requirements. I would do away with the whole thing.

Instead I would let each team have a $50 million budget for each international transfer window and raise the salary cap from $10 million to $20-25 million with increases as the league grows.

I would get the league in line with the other prominent soccer leagues around the globe by making the winner of the MLS Cup the team with the most points during the season and have the MLS teams play in an in season tournament for a secondary cup along with the US Open cup.

If you have any other ideas or disagreements for my changes let me know in the comments below.