What's wrong with the NBA

1.) The Current Officiating:
The current officiating is an issue. The problem with what Jeff Van Gundy said during the playoffs wasn't that he said it, it was that it was so believable. The NBA refs have a credibility gap in the eyes of the public that must be fixed. The fact that the average fan DOES believe that refs could & have decided playoff games is a serious blemish on the NBA. I don't know what they can do to fix it, but they need to do something. For all the crap that NFL refs get, they pretty much call the game uniformly and every decision can be backed up. The NBA does not have the same consistency, which is evident in the fact that 2 games in the same serious will have one team shooting 20 more FTs than the other, then the next night it will be exactly opposite. I'm sorry but I don't think the players change their styles that much between games. Stuff like Shaq getting to commit offensive fouls every time he "backs down" a player in the post, or Ewing getting to take about 20 steps on the shot at the free throw line that knocked the Pacers out of the playoffs back in 1995 (or 94) are part of the reasons why fans are so pissed with the refs. Heck even Jordan's famous "last shot" against the Jazz was an offensive foul as he pushed Byron Russell out of the way to make that shot (yes it was great drama, but if Banks made that same move in the regular season it would be called a foul).

2.) Rivalries
I think another thing that is hurting the NBA is the lack of rivalries. Stern believe that every team in the country needs to be able to see every other team in the country, so that the "stars" can visit all of these cities. This has taken away the classic divisional rivalries that you see in all of the other sports (Red Sox-Yankees, Broncos-Raiders, Redskins-Cowboys, etc) and made it all about the players. So we have home and away series with the Clippers every year.We only play each team in our division 4 times during the season of an 82 game season that's 4%. In baseball the Sox & Yankees play each other 19 games for 10%. In football the Cowbowys & Redskins play each other 2 times for 12.5% of their schedule.I'd love to see it switch to a style similar to football in that we play only one division in the western conference every year, with a home and away series. This would mean that in 3 years every team would see every other team, so you'd still be able to see the "stars" in their prime. This would be 10 games. We then play every team in our Conference but not division in a 4 game series. This would be an additional 40 games.We then play every team in our Division in an 8 game series. This would be 32 games. Think how intense the rivalries could be again. 76ers vs. Cetlics would mean something. Because the teams would be more about local geography again, you might see fans travelling to each other's arenas and generating excitement.

3.) West Coast Games
Lastly in order to ensure that people can see the "stars" play the NBA needs to move forward games ESPECIALLY in the playoffs. People on the East Coast shouldn't have to stay up until 1 AM to see Suns vs Mavericks. Even during the regular season, West Coast games start way too late for anyone but the most diehard fan to watch. Combine this with working with the networks to really make a specific night "Basketball Night" much in the same way the NFL owns Sundays as "Football Day". Start the early game at 6:30, and the late game at 9.

But none it will ever happen.....