The NBA under Adam Silver has tried various gimmicks to spice up the regular season. The NBA Cup, the 65-game minimum requirement for individual awards, and the Play-In Tournament are just a few examples of this. \u201cRivals Week\u201d might be the most contrived of them all.<\/p>\n
The NBA has 11 matchups between January 20 and 24 that they\u2019re calling \u201cRivals Week.\u201d It\u2019s difficult to come four or five good matchups that you could consider a rivalry. The amount of player movement makes it difficult for rivalries to build up organically. Most of the matchups that we think of as rivalries are actually just players that we want to see face up. And, considering divisions are basically meaningless, there isn\u2019t the regional animosity that builds up in baseball or football, where your divisional opponents greatly impact your playoff chances. Coming up with this many rivalry games isn\u2019t an enviable task.<\/p>\n
That said, you could\u2019ve found a few better opponents for the Cleveland Cavaliers than the Charlotte Hornets.<\/p>\n
Some of the other matchups are a little forced, but none more so than the Cavs and Hornets. The justification for this one is that it\u2019ll be a showdown between the Ball brothers, Lonzo and LaMelo. But, I\u2019m not sure how bankable that matchup really is. They aren\u2019t twins or both starters like with the Thompson brothers with the Detroit Pistons and Houston Rockets. This seems like more of an interesting footnote and not something to build a whole event around.<\/p>\n
There\u2019s nothing aside from the Ball brothers that could generate any interest in this particular matchup. I\u2019m not sure either franchise has played a truly meaningful game against the other in the 21st century.<\/p>\n