NBPA executive reached out to Spencer Dinwiddie about his idea for modified 2020 NBA playoffs

At the very beginning of this period with no live sports — which was started by the NBA when Utah Jazz big man Rudy Gobert preliminarily tested positive for COVID-19 — Brooklyn Nets point guard Spencer Dinwiddie was spit-balling ideas on Twitter. He came up with one that was designed to help the league make up for some of the revenue lost during this time frame, while also providing fans with perhaps the closest thing they’re going get to a March Madness tournament in 2020 since the NCAA canceling both the men’s and women’s basketball tournaments.

In a Facetime interview with Taylor Rooks of Bleacher Report, Dinwiddie explained his thought process:

So, basically, it was kind of like looking at March Madness, right? And the buy in and then also our loss of revenue, right, during this time period (from) not playing roughly 18 games per team. One of the ways March Madness does a really good job, they invite everybody to the football stadium. You get about 100,000 people in there, which is the equivalent of five games. Right?

So, I was thinking, how can we make that happen? Well, you can’t do that with the top seeds ’cause they earned the right to have home-court advantage. So what if you had this little play-in, tournament-style? Maybe best-of-three situation where, ya know, you get everybody in these football stadiums, you ramp up the revenue, you get everybody excited, and then when you get back to the regular playoffs, ya know, all the people that played into that round of 16, you kind of resume playoffs as usual.

The internet took notice to Dinwiddie’s idea when it first came out — and it turns out the NBPA did, too.

(NBPA executive director) Michele Roberts actually asked if she could share that stuff with the community and with the NBA, and I said, ya know, ‘Sure.’

Spencer Dinwiddie says retiring NBPA executive director Michele Roberts reached out about his 28-team March Madness-style NBA playoff idea

The Nets PG also talks about getting tested for COVID-19 and why he’s watching his own highlights in exclusive FaceTime with @TaylorRooks pic.twitter.com/qQlrRtVzVX

— Bleacher Report (@BleacherReport) March 17, 2020

Dinwiddie also expressed how it’s crucial for the league to give players some time to get back into the swing of playing games. Simply jumping into the playoffs wouldn’t be in the players’ best interest:

I think if you look at the lockout seasons and things like that, ya know, when guys take time like this all — ya know, even if they’re lifting, even if they’re running, it’s just still not game basketball. And then you’re gonna want them to, ya know, this month or two-month or three-month, or however long it is, pause, and then jump right into the highest intensity possible of basketball, you’re asking for that increased injury risk. It’s just, ya know, inevitable. So, you want, kind of, that three or five-game kind of ramp-up where people can at least get into a little bit of a rhythm. And plus, the quality of basketball games [would be] better, per the rhythm.

Given the CDC’s latest recommendation — no events consisting of 50 people or more be held over the next eight weeks in the U.S. — the NBA will have to do something quite unique, unless the league concludes playing into August is the best decision.