SPORTS
Saturday, April 13, 2019
East Oregonian
B3
Shorter season?
Shorter games? Silver
ponders NBA format
By BRIAN MAHONEY
AP Basketball Writer
NEW YORK — The
future of NBA basketball
could look like European
soccer.
Tournaments that take
place during the season
along with league games
intrigue
Commissioner
Adam Silver as a way to
change the format of the
NBA’s 82-game season.
If it even keeps an
82-game season.
Silver mentioned every-
thing from shorter games to
a shorter season Friday as
ways the NBA could make
its future product better for
players and fans.
“The format we have in
place now — I’m a tradi-
tionalist on one hand, but on
the other hand it’s 50 years
old or so, presenting an
82-game season, and there’s
nothing magical about it,”
Silver said.
“I think it’s on the league
office to always be challeng-
ing the way we do things, to
be paying attention to chang-
ing viewer habits, a chang-
ing marketplace, a new
world of the way media is
presented, often on smaller
devices, less on screens,
people having shorter atten-
tion spans, and saying, ‘This
is an incredible game, it’s
never been more exciting,
the athleticism has never
been greater, fantastic play-
ers coming from all around
the world, but what’s the
best way to put the season
together?’”
Silver has focused on
player health as commis-
sioner, opening the regular
season earlier to reduce the
frequency of back-to-back
games, and lengthening the
All-Star break.
But players are still sit-
ting out games through-
out the season — either
by their choice or because
their teams are requiring it
— often for reasons being
listed as load management.
“I think a fair point from
fans could be if ultimately
the science suggests that 82
games is too many games
for these players, maybe you
shouldn’t have an 82-game
season,” Silver said. “I
accept that, and that’s some-
thing we’ll continue to look
at.”
Fewer games could mean
less revenue, unless they
could be replaced by some-
thing that would generate
as many or more viewers.
Tournaments could be an
answer, even if 82 games
remains the format.
Silver has pointed to
European soccer as some-
thing that could bring new
interest to the NBA by
offering teams more oppor-
tunities to win something,
instead of just having one
champion.
“That’s why I’m particu-
larly interested in looking at
different kinds of formats —
at midseason tournaments,
for example, play-in tour-
naments — because even
accepting that players have
so many miles on their bod-
ies, there may be better ways
to present it,” Silver said.
“Assuming guys are going
to play 82 games, maybe
there should be a certain
number of games in the reg-
ular season and then there
should be two tournaments
throughout the season.”
AP Photo/Charlie Litchfield
In this Tuesday, Dec. 18, 2018, file photo, Oregon guard Sa-
brina Ionescu (20) reacts during an NCAA college basketball
game against Mississippi State in Eugene.
Williamson, Ionescu
win honors at College
Basketball Awards
By BETH HARRIS
Associated Press
LOS ANGELES — Zion
Williamson of Duke insisted
he doesn’t know if he’s going
to declare for the NBA draft
and leave Duke early.
Then his words seemingly
betrayed him.
After winning the John
R. Wooden Award as the
nation’s outstanding men’s
player at the College Basket-
ball Awards Friday night, he
rattled off memories from his
freshman year.
“Just being around each
other on and off the court
because it was more than
basketball,” Williamson said
during the nationally tele-
vised show. “The brother-
hood is something real. The
bond we had built is second to
none so I know I’m going to
miss that.”
Oops.
Asked for the second time
on the show if he was leaving
early, he replied, “Like I said
before, I don’t know.”
Williamson is the sixth
player from Duke to win
the award named for the
late UCLA coach, who
won a record 10 NCAA
championships.
Williamson’s trophy cab-
inet is already overstuffed.
He has collected numerous
awards — including The
Associated Press player of
the year — for his efforts in
leading the Blue Devils to
the Elite Eight of the NCAA
Tournament. They lost 68-67
to Michigan State, denying
themselves a trip to the Final
Four.
Earlier, Williamson won
the Karl Malone power for-
ward trophy.
“I don’t regret nothing
about this season,” he said. “I
enjoyed every moment of it.”
Sabrina Ionescu of Ore-
gon was a surprise winner of
the women’s Wooden Award.
She and Williamson shared
the spotlight during the fifth
annual ceremony at The Novo
in downtown Los Angeles.
Her mouth dropped
open when her name was
announced. The NCAA Divi-
sion I leader in career tri-
ple-doubles with 18, she led
the Ducks on their first-ever
Final Four run. The 21-year-
old point guard plans to
return for her senior year.
“This award isn’t won
alone, so this goes out to my
team, my family, my coaches,
and everyone that made
this possible,” Ionescu said.
“Growing up with two broth-
ers, it wasn’t easy. They never
took it easy on me. We fought
all the time. We played in the
yard, and so this goes to them.
They pushed me to my limits
all the time.”
AP Photo/Jeff Roberson
St. Louis Cardinals’ Harrison Bader (48) celebrates with teammates Tyler O’Neill, left, and Jose Martinez following an 11-7
victory over the Los Angeles Dodgers in a baseball game on Thursday in St. Louis.
With a presidential pitch,
baseball gets a boost in Mexico
By CARLOS
RODRIGUEZ
Associated Press
MONTERREY, Mex-
ico — The St. Louis Car-
dinals, Cincinnati Reds and
all of Major League Base-
ball will have one big fan
rooting for them when they
come together this week-
end at Estadio de Béisbol
de Monterrey — Mexican
President Andres Manuel
López Obrador.
López Obrador, who
took the oath of office last
December, is a devoted
baseball fan and is trying
hard to help the sport suc-
ceed in a country where
soccer is still king.
The Cardinals and Reds
meet for games on Saturday
and Sunday, and the Hous-
ton Astros and Los Ange-
les Angels will play another
two-game series at the same
ballpark in early May.
But López Obrador
wants baseball to be more
than just a couple of big
league sets every year.
“It’s well known that
baseball is my favorite
sport, since I was a kid in
my town there was noth-
ing more than baseball,”
said the 65-year-old López
Obrador, who has several
videos on YouTube where
he shows off a good swing.
“I can still play, I can still
hit above .300, I played cen-
ter field when I was younger
AP Photo/John Minchillo
Cincinnati Reds right fielder Yasiel Puig (66) sits with his
teammates in the dugout in the second inning of a baseball
game against the Miami Marlins on Thursday in Cincinnati.
and had a good arm and
covered a lot of ground.”
MLB
began
hold-
ing regular season games
in Mexico in 1996 when
the San Diego Padres and
Mets played three times.
The 1999 season opened
with a matchup in Mon-
terrey between the Padres
and Colorado. Last May,
the Padres and Los Ange-
les Dodgers played a three-
game series at the stadium
— Walker Buehler and the
Dodgers bullpen combined
for a no-hitter.
All of those series were
a success with sellouts in
Monterrey.
López Obrador put some
action behind his passion
and recently created Pro-
mobeis, a government office
run by Édgar González, a
former player who spent
a couple of seasons as a
Padres second baseman and
was Mexico’s manager at
the World Baseball Classic.
Among other things,
Promobeis has a goal to
have between 60 and 80
Mexican players in the
majors. This season, only
eight local players started
the season on big league
rosters, but González —
brother of former All-
Star Adrian González —
believes that he can he can
have success because there
are over 160 Mexicans in
the minors.
“I love the challenge, it’s
something that has never
been done before and can
be a success. I think it’s eas-
ier to have more Mexican
baseball players in the big
leagues than players in the
NFL. Besides, we believe
that we can help to take kids
away from the bad habits,”
González told The Associ-
ated Press.
“We believe that having
more players in the majors
will help us to grow the
sport’s popularity. Right
now we have a little bit over
160 players in the minors,
in the majors right now
there are 10 because some
of them are constantly been
called up or sent down.
It’s a good number and I
believe we can grow in the
future and have more play-
ers signing with MLB clubs
like the Puerto Ricans or
the Dominicans,” González
said.
To put the program in
motion, González and Pro-
mobeis have a $17.5 mil-
lion budget for 2019. The
money will be invested in
the opening of 10 baseball
academies that are going
to be administered by the
government.
“It’s going to be great if
they support baseball like
the president wants. You
need to start early in the
sport to be successful,” said
former big league slugger
Vinny Castilla, considered
one of the all-time great
Mexican players. “Base-
ball is our president’s great
passion and that’s big news
because for all of us that
love the sport, he is going to
support the sport as much
as he can.”