What changes would you make if you were NBA commissioner?
That’s a question Vince Staples was asked in a recent appearance on Paul George’s ‘Podcast P’ ahead of the NBA All-Star Game.
The rapper and television star had a list of items ready if he were to fill in for current commissioner Adam Silver. Among them, get rid of conferences and the G League.
George and his co-hosts asked for more explanation on scrapping the Eastern and Western Conference format. Staples cited the Minnesota Timberwolves and the New Orleans Pelicans being in the latter as evidence that the structure needs reworking.
‘Minnesota’s not in the Western of anything. New Orleans being in the Western of anything is like crazy,’ he said. ‘Get a map. That’s the first thing I’m doing is getting a map.’
The rapper, who released ‘The Vince Staples Show’ on Netflix on Thursday, also suggested an analysis of where teams are located.
‘Get these teams out of these places nobody wanna go,’ he said. ‘Get (Oklahoma City Thunder) out of there and I like that team. But put them in Vegas. … I’m not mad at Indiana ’cause it’s a legacy team. It’s like Granny’s house. You don’t sell Granny’s house.’
‘Stop it,’ Staples said, suggesting the idea is a cash grab. ‘Thirsty, bro.’
‘Let them go home. Don’t make them play,’ he said of the No. 9 seed having a chance to make the playoffs. ‘Somebody’s gonna twist their ankle, make ’em mess up their golf game next Sunday. They already got it planned out. They know they’re not making it. What are we doing, bro?’
Vince Staples suggests the NBA should adopt WWE-like drama
Staples, who is a Los Angeles Clippers fan, said that the NBA should embrace some WWE tactics. He suggested Silver should intentionally start a feud with future Hall of Famer LeBron James and have him throw a chair during a game to increase fan engagement.
‘You know how much jerseys sales are gonna go up? Everybody gonna watch the games. ‘LeBron, I’ma address that (expletive) you did at the draft,” Staples suggested, given underwhelming fan response to the NBA adding a second night to the draft. ‘Now we all watching the second day of the draft.’
He furthers his case by imagining how the drama from the 1990s Chicago Bulls could have been heightened. The team won six championships with Michael Jordan creating moments like the Flu Game and plenty of controversy around Dennis Rodman.
‘What if in the middle of the Eastern Conference finals, they say, ‘Aw, man, Dennis Rodman is in the hospital. He has alcohol poisoning from a night in Vegas,” Staples pondered.
‘You’re like, ‘Aw, man, Dennis not here. It’s gonna be quiet.’ You don’t even affect the game. You ain’t gotta cheat or nothing. Then out of nowhere, that happened, you see Dennis Rodman run out the tunnel with the gown on. … He puts jersey and shorts on at the baseline, bro. He gets 15 boards. … That’s the Gown Game. Mitchell and Ness gowns for sale, $250.
‘NBA, I got ideas, call me.’