Replace the NBA!

I cannot believe how bad NBA basketball is today compared to what it could be. Watching the NBA finals is watching great athletes stand in a half-circle around the three-point line too much of the time. 

It's young guys playing old man's basketball. There are literally 10 players standing around the arc so often, that if you drank a beer every time all 10 players were standing next to the three-point line during an NBA game, you would get drunk! Mathematics says we can fix this!

CHARACTER

I grew up loving basketball because it was so exciting. When I watched high school basketball in the 1970s it was non-stop running and gunning full court all the time! I saw a high school team score over 100 points a game twice, and there was no three-point line back then! When I got old enough to play, all we did was fast break! Today, it seems like it's full-time walking and stepping backwards behind the three-point line. The most coveted players are the ones who can step backwards the best. There is no non-stop forward motion! 

CHARACTER 2

I grew up loving the ABA! Dr. J was running full court and slamming it down in unbelievable fashion all the time!

We once had Houston's Phi Slama Jama(R)! Remember when Clyde Drexler and Hakeem Olajuwan came along in college and played full court all the time? It was non-stop running and dunking! That was thrilling basketball. That was rocking and rolling basketball. It was a dunkathon.

CHARACTER 

How can you make a high-speed game slow? By stepping backwards all the time.

CHARACTER 2

The mathematics of today's NBA game are all screwed up. Instead of running and gunning, and fast breaking, and being exciting, it's better to step backwards behind the three-point line. 

Let's say you shoot a hundred shots in a game. If you shoot all three-pointers and you make 40% of them you have scored 120 points. If you shoot all two-pointers and you make 50% of them you have only made a 100 points. Mathematically it's much better to shoot three pointers!

CHARACTER

We can fix this! We can start by playing 4-on-4 full court. We can start with a TV show about starting 4-on-4 games. This would be great for upstart sports organizations like Outkick or Barstool Sports, or for new social networks that need sports highlights. The fans can post the highlights! The fans can be the camera operators using smartphones! 

Entrepreneurs need to step up. Why are we watching boring basketball? Set the players free with room to play! Uncage players like LeBron James to run and gun. Set them free. There are far too many great basketball players today without enough wide open games for them to play in. Run and dunk! 

Copyright (c) Bradley R. Hennenfent, MD. All Rights reserved. This blog is an ongoing script and treatment. 

Cancel the NBA! Please!

CHARACTER ONE
NBA please cancel yourself! I don't believe in cancel culture or censorship, but if you want to do it to yourself please do! I love basketball and I can't wait for the NBA to be canceled. Why? Because of mathematics! Because I hate the way the NBA plays basketball. All they do is walk from three-point line to three-point line. Boring! It's old-timer basketball at the YMCA.

When I played basketball, we fast-breaked all the time! We were always running and gunning, going from rim to rim! It was true full court basketball. Showtime was the dream. 

Remember the legends of run and gun basketball? Dr. J? Showtime with Magic Johnson? James Worthy? That was great basketball. Remember Pistol Pete Maravich on the fast break? Or John Havlicek. That was unbelievable. Even Charles Barkley, the round mound of rebound, was more fun to watch when he was on the fast break than anything I see today. That Barkley truck could move!

Today's NBA is slow and boring like an old timer's league. We need to play 4-on-4 full court because of mathematics.

The math says if you take two 7-footers off the court you'll have a lot more room for running and gunning. You will have more dunks, alley-oops, and highlights than ever before! You will be freeing up about 100 ft² of space! 

SPEAKER TWO

I agree with you! And from a business standpoint, the NBA Monopoly is ripe for being taken down. It's time to do it!

It could all start with a reality TV show about a startup that wants to start games and leagues playing four-on-four full court. Or as I have noted before three-on-three, two-on-two, or one-on-one! And those could be played with Covid-19 recovered players.

Why are we still playing today's stupid slow game?

We have everything we need today to start a brand new league to compete and drive out the NBA. We have social media. We have sports fans everywhere with cell phone cameras who can video the highlights! We have everything! We also have a better product. We have run and gun basketball!

Copyright (c) 2020 BradMD, Brad Hennenfent, M.D. All rights reserved. This is an ongoing script and treatment. 

College Basketball Players will Play!

ANNOUNCER

College basketball players have refused to be put on the bench! They are forming their own basketball leagues. They are using social media to replace the monopolistic sports networks. 

ANALYST

I think it's a great idea! What they are doing is playing 1-on-1 full court, 2-on-2 full court, 3-on-3, or 4-on-4 full court, whatever it takes to be safe in this day and age of COVID-19. 

PHYSICIAN/ACTOR

Two guys, both who have already had covid-19 and have recovered, can play full court and can run and gun non-stop! There can be excellent social distancing in a gymnasium. The reporters can be citizen reporters sitting far away in the stands and using the zoom lens on their cell phones! The highlights can be sent all over social media! 

ENTREPRENEUR

We miss basketball! We love basketball! We have all these new streaming media channels, we even have two great names, Huge Channel and Jumbo Channel, that will remind people of the History Channel or the Hallmark Channel because of the similar style of naming. 

The point is we love sports, we miss sports, we have hundreds of new channels that need sports, and now we have college basketball players banned from playing basketball! We are going to turn them into entrepreneurs, starting their own games, having their own tournaments, creating their own leagues! Getting paid!

PHYSICIAN /ACTOR

Do you realize how many NBA players have already had COVID-19 and have recovered? There are plenty of players on the NBA level, the college level, and even the high school level who can play because they have had the virus and have recovered. Or who can play because they are so incredibly low risk.

ANALYST

We need basketball! And we need this new style of basketball with fewer players on the court and more dunks, fast breaks, alley oops, and just plain more highlights in general! We are all tired of seeing players walk from the three-point line to the three-point line. Let's bring back fast break basketball! Let's run and gun!

Copyright (c) 2020 Brad Hennenfent, MD all rights reserved. This is an ongoing treatment and script for TV shows, movies, reality TV shows, basketball games, basketball tournaments, and basketball leagues. This is an ongoing script for a different way to play basketball and to bring it to all media including media not yet invented. 

Showtime! Dunks and Alley Oops!

Businessmen, businesswomen, investors, filmmakers, movie makers, producers, and directors, need to get together and create a new basketball league (and TV show). 

The NBA Monopoly can be taken down because of its bad quality basketball. They mostly just walk from three-point line to three-point line. Boring!

In fact, one person could organize the whole thing. The concept will be playing 4-on-4 full court basketball to create the space for the run and gun style of basketball that we all love. 

Mathematics says that playing 4-on-4 full court will result in more dunks, fast breaks, and alley oops! 

It could all start with a reality TV show following the the one person getting it organized and started. Imagine all the meetings with players, fans, and investors. Imagine the drama of a startup!

When the games are played, the fan base can use their own smartphones and social media to publish all the highlights. 

In fact, getting social media involved would be perfect. 

A great additional bonus is that it would be easy to work around the coronavirus epidemic. You could literally start with 1-on-1 full court, if you had to, with recovered basketball players. Then, you could move on to 2-on-2 and 3-on-3 and finally 4-on-4. It's all about the highlights! 

Economics says there are too many great basketball players and not enough teams where they can play the run and gun, showtime style of basketball!

Millionaire NBA players Super Agents and Investors

CHARACTER ONE

NBA basketball players, agents, and investors are thinking too small! They should be thinking about owning their own basketball league. Not just playing for the NBA.

CHARACTER TWO

What do you mean? What could be better than the NBA?

CHARACTER ONE

Just look at all the organizations that have taken on the NFL. Remember the XFL, the USFL, the AAF, and the WFL? They all tried to take on the NFL. But the NBA is much weaker. The NBA would be a far easier monopoly to break!

CHARACTER TWO

How would you even get started?

CHARACTER ONE

Just think of all the basketball courts sitting empty around the world. Basketball is a worldwide sport. In the USA alone every weekend there are empty basketball courts at junior high schools and high schools all over America. It would be super easy to take on the NBA by playing four-on-four full court, or three-on-three full court, because there would be far more fast breaks, dunks, and entertainment!

CHARACTER TWO

Why would you even do that?

CHARACTER ONE

Because we have an excess supply of great basketball players! And we have a terrible game today. Five-on-five basketball is boring because there's no more constant running gunning, no showtime basketball, like the fans really love. All they do is basically go from three-point line to three-point line.

CHARACTER TWO

What's the problem again?

CHARACTER ONE

Basketball is boring! The players used to be 6 ft tall. Each player took up 6 * 6 * 6 = 216 ft³ of space. Now the players are more like 7 ft tall. That's 7 * 7 * 7 = 343 ft³ of space. The players take up so much room the players can't fast break like they used to! It's mathematics! The math says we need to decrease the number of players on the floor.

CHARACTER TWO

But what about all the other stuff?

CHARACTER ONE

We have all the tools to fix everything today! We have computer programming. We have smartphones! Every single person who goes to the games can be the press! They can be the ones to film all the highlights using their cell phones, and they can be the ones to publish all the highlights on social media! It all can be done in a super inexpensive fashion. 

CHARACTER TWO

As an investor, and entrepreneur, and a computer programmer, I see tons of potential in what you're talking about!

CHARACTER ONE

Yes, all you got to do is get one retired NBA superstar who still loves to run and gun, and you could start a four-on-four full court league, or a three-on-three full court league! It would take minimal investment compared to trying to take on the NFL.

CHARACTER TWO

And the players could be the owners! There could be stock options. There could be ownership potential for players.

CHARACTER ONE

Yes, there is very little standing in the way of taking on the NBA with a brand new league, perhaps starting first with reality TV show about starting up the new league, and about negotiating everything to get the new league going. There is incredible opportunity here. imagine going around the country recruiting fantastic basketball players not quite good enough for the NBA, but unbelievably great dunkers, passers, and runners.

CHARACTER TWO

I love it! I'm going to talk to every filmmaker, movie maker, basketball player, investor, angel investor, venture capitalist, and entrepreneur that I know.

Copyright (c) 2020 BradMD (Brad Hennenfent, MD) all rights reserved. This is part of an ongoing treatment and script for TV shows, games, leagues, tournaments, movies, videos, etc.

Coronavirus Charity Basketball Game! Beat COVID-19!

CHARACTER ONE

What would you do if you were a basketball player, tested positive for the coronavirus, and then recovered?

CHARACTER TWO

I'd play basketball!

CHARACTER ONE

Exactly! I'd hoop! I'd find another player that has recovered and play one-on-one full court! That way there would be lots of highlights, running and gunning and slam dunks!

CHARACTER TWO

I'd pay to see that!

CHARACTER ONE

We could do it safely! We'd have two players who we know are immune to COVID-19. Ideally, we would have a staff that were immune to COVID-19 as well! We could use the fewest possible number of people. 

Just think of all the NBA players that are recovering from COVID-19.

Reportedly, there's Rudy Gobert and Donovan Mitchell, there are three or four Brooklyn Nets teammates. Reportedly there is also Christian Wood. Soon there will be two or more players that have completely recovered and are immune, so they could play!

There could be 1-on-1 full court, 2-on-2 full court, 3-on-3 full court, and 4-on-4 full court. These games with fewer players could start almost immediately! It won't be long until many players have fully recovered!

CHARACTER TWO

I need these games! They can be pay per view! Whatever it takes. I need basketball! And reruns of old basketball games are horrible! I want live basketball! 

CHARACTER ONE

Exactly, this is an opportunity for players, entrepreneurs, and new ideas! The mathematics of basketball say that we need fewer players on the court so we can speed up the game, and we can get fast break basketball again! This is the perfect opportunity to put these ideas in motion.

COPYRIGHT

Copyright (C) 2020. BradMD, Brad Hennenfent, MD. All rights reserved.

Coronavirus is an Opportunity for NBA Basketball Players

CHARACTER ONE

Coronavirusis an opportunity for NBA players to become billionaires by playing 4-on-4 full court, 3-on-3 full court, 2-on-2 full court, and 1-on-1 full court. 

CHARACTER TWO

Yes! I know what you mean! We, basketball fans, are starving for basketball! This is absolutely the worst time in the world to cancel basketball. We fans were looking forward to March Madness and the NBA playoffs!

CHARACTER ONE

Absolutely! I was working my way into maximum anticipation! I always get jacked up this time of year for basketball. And now it's gone.

But you know what? There will be people who are not afraid to play basketball. There are people who could go from quarantine to the gym and back. And by playing 4-on-4 full court, 3-on-3 full court, 2-on-2 full court, and 1-on-1 full court, it would greatly reduce the risk of the coronavirus. The fewer the number of people playing and the fewer the number of people in the stands the less the risk for the spread of the virus. It would only take a few people with cell phones to video the games! And the games with highlights could be placed on social media. Essentially an entire TV show could be built, scripted or unscripted, even including a reality TV show, around these ideas!

Games could be played. League tournaments could be done, leagues could be created, and so on and so forth. The fewest number of people possible could be involved and yet there could be fantastic basketball highlights! With fewer players on the court there will be much more running and gunning, fast breaks, and dunks!

CHARACTER TWO

All kinds of safety measures could be put in place! Everybody could be tested, everything could be disinfected, and so on and so forth. One, two, three, or four people could run the whole thing!

CHARACTER ONE

I'd be happy to see two players playing one-on-one full court! You could then have one or two cameramen with cell phones at each end of the court! That would be the near minimum possible! 

CHARACTER TWO

Imagine the unbelievable highlights of fast break basketball! 

COPYRIGHT

Copyright (c) 2020 BradMD (Brad Hennenfent, M.D.) All rights reserved.

Basketball Players becoming Billionaires

CHARACTER ONE

Basketball players can become billionaires. All they have to do is wake up to business and entrepreneurship.

CHARACTER TWO

How do they do that?

CHARACTER ONE

Mathematics says basketball is ripe for innovation! Ripe for disruption! Look at the history of basketball. What's most popular worldwide about basketball? I'll answer my own question. It's the running and gunning, it's Showtime, it's Phi Slamma Jamma, it's the dunks! It's the slam dunks at the end of incredible passes while on the run. When I was younger everybody went to see fast break basketball on the high school level.

CHARACTER TWO

But how do we get from here to there?

CHARACTER ONE

Everything's been laid out to disrupt  basketball! All you have to do is study the history of the ABA and now look at the XFL! Look at what came before the XFL, there was the AAF (Alliance of American Football).

CHARACTER TWO

Yes and there was also the UFL, the CFL, the USFL, and now the XFL.

CHARACTER ONE

Some of those leagues have been and still are successful. Remember that Jim Kelly, Herschel Walker, Doug Flutie and Steve Young, all played for the USFL - if I remember correctly.

CHARACTER TWO

And don't forget the American Football League! It competed with the NFL until the NFL merged with the American Football League. Remember that Larry Csonka was a famous football player that was the number one pick for the American Football League's Miami Dolphins! Then his team once went undefeated after the merger with the NFL. That was the only undefeated perfect season in the NFL! Or to be more clear, after three seasons in the NFL, the Miami Dolphins were the only team to have a perfect season and then win the Super Bowl. 

CHARACTER ONE

The bottom line is that if you study history and understand business, and understand how to do a startup, you can compete with the NBA! And if you do it right you can be wildly successful! That's because the situation is far better for another professional basketball league to compete with the NBA than it is for a competitor to the NFL.

CHARACTER TWO

How so? What do you mean? 

CHARACTER ONE 

Basketball has all the advantages! Basketball is a worldwide sport and it requires far less equipment! Worldwide, basketball is far more popular than American football. There has never been a better time in the history of the world to do a startup, create a new basketball league, or create new television programs, and videos, to take on the NBA!

CHARACTER ONE

How would you do it?

CHARACTER TWO

It's simple, follow the math! Follow the history of what has been successful before. First, get as many celebrity athletes as investors as possible. These celebrity athletes already have huge fan bases on Twitter, Instagram, and other social media outlets. Organize all the influencers possible who love fast break basketball! Celebrity athletes can be the first players!

CHARACTER TWO

But you said follow the math...

CHARACTER ONE

Exactly! The game of basketball has been slowed down by the three-point line. Follow basketball analytics! All you have to do to change the mathematics of basketball is start playing four-on-four full-court, three-on-three full-court, two-on-two full-court, and even one-on-one full-court. 

CHARACTER TWO

You mean change the game slightly so all the magnificent athletes aren't simply running three-point line to three-point line. You mean change the game so stepping backwards behind the three-point line isn't the most important part of the game.

CHARACTER ONE

Exactly! You have described it in a nutshell. Instead of playing full court run and gun basketball, today's players are actually incentivized to move backwards. Thus we don't have nearly the number of fast breaks, unbelievable passes, and running slam dunks that we should have.

CHARACTER TWO

I get it! I get what you are saying. It is the perfect time in history to begin new reality TV shows, scripted TV shows, new basketball leagues, new games and tournaments, all built around playing basketball with fewer than five players.

CHARACTER ONE

That's right! It's all about the math. As basketball players have gotten bigger and bigger, the courts have gotten smaller and smaller. There's less room to run and gun. But it can all be fixed very simply, without cost, by simply moving down to four-on-four, then three-on-three, then two-on-two, then one-on-one!

CHARACTER TWO

Yes I get it! The overhead is incredibly small and the market is incredibly huge! Plus, it can be done today because all basketball players today have excellent ball handling skills, not like in the old days when only the guards could dribble full court.

CHARACTER ONE

Yes, if done right such a startup would make money from the get-go. I see what you mean by the players need to wake up, some of these organizations need to wake up, perhaps things like CloseUp360, PlayersTV, and all players like ex-NBA players, ex-college players, ex-high school players, and all the social networks, especially the new ones that are competing with Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter, could wake up and turn basketball fans into sports reporters and journalists overnight! The old NBA and the old social networks could be taken down at the same time with competition! 

CHARACTER TWO

Yes, that's it. That's how basketball players become billionaires. 

Copyright (c) 2020 Brad Hennenfent, M.D. All rights reserved. This is an ongoing script and treatment for television shows, videos, and experiences in all possible media, invented and not yet invented, related to playing basketball. 

Why the NBA Sucks!

CHARACTER 1

NBA basketball bores me to tears. We have the world's best athletes, all who can handle the ball, dunk, and alley-oop, but their most important skill is being able to step backwards. Boring! 

CHARACTER 2

I know exactly what you mean! I used to love Phi Slama Jama(TM) basketball. I used to love Showtime! Now all basketball players do is go from 3-point line to 3-point line and if they accidentally go too far they step backwards! It's so different now, because in the past we used to run and gun full court, basket to basket.

CHARACTER 1

Imagine if the game were actually played to take advantage of the skillsets of today's professional basketball players! 

CHARACTER 2

Yes! The NBA Monopoly could be busted. Why do investors and entrepreneurs keep trying to compete with the NFL? The NFL is basically only an American game. Basketball is worldwide. By playing four-on-four full court a new league could destroy the NBA! It would be easy to do. All you would have to do is combine basketball players with business men or women. A single social media network could make the entire 4-on-4 league take off. There would be far better highlights. Many more dunks! Many more fantastic run and gun plays. Many more fast breaks!

CHARACTER 2

This is a continuing script - screenplay - treatment, for scripted and unscripted videos regarding playing four-on-four full court basketball! Or having reality TV shows. That's right! It would be much better to play 4-on-4 full court! Fans love full court basketball! The fans love running and gunning. Players love playing fast-break basketball. There is an excess supply of fantastic basketball players! There is an NBA Monopoly ready to be broken!

By the way, Phi Slama Jama(TM) is a registered trademark of the University of Houston. Go Cougars!