With the NBA coming off of a labor dispute and attempting to salvage a 66 game season, certain sacrifices had to be made. One of those, was the slaughter of a policy of not competing with March Madness. The NBA will schedule games on the NCAA Championship Monday for the first time since 2004 this year.
On the plus side, it will be the first time that Randy Foye will play basketball on the first Monday in April, when his Clippers take on the Dallas Mavericks on April 2nd.
The move was forced by the challenges of scheduling a season on short-notice. The New Jersey Nets will be asked to play 14 of their first 22 games on the road, for example. The move isn't likely some sort of power-play to stab the college game in the back. The NBA just simply doesn't have many options.
What will viewers tune into? Smart money is on most people watching an NCAA Championship game over a regular-season NBA match-up, but sometimes money isn't so smart.
Clippers/Mavs or Kentucky/UNC for a championship: What's your call?