# Does the NBA really need 7 games to determine a winner? **URL:** \ **Category:** The Game Room\ **Tags:** basketball-nba\ **Created:** [April 30, 2026, 4:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-the-nba-really-need-7-games-to-determine-a-winner/1029673 "2026-04-30T16:39:27Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![mixdenny](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mixdenny/32/2962_2.png) [@mixdenny](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mixdenny)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2026, 4:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-the-nba-really-need-7-games-to-determine-a-winner/1029673/1 "2026-04-30T16:39:27Z")
Geez the basketball season is so long. ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2026, 4:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-the-nba-really-need-7-games-to-determine-a-winner/1029673/2 "2026-04-30T16:50:14Z")
Money is the answer. ---
**Author:** ![smithsb](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smithsb/32/12107_2.png) [@smithsb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/smithsb)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2026, 4:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-the-nba-really-need-7-games-to-determine-a-winner/1029673/3 "2026-04-30T16:54:12Z")
Substitute in NCAA basketball March Madness, MLB playoffs, Superbowl runup, Innumerable Soccer (football) league championships, etc … It’s all about the Benjamins. Putting products in front of the eyes of viewers as much as possible. Ninja’d by seconds. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2026, 5:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-the-nba-really-need-7-games-to-determine-a-winner/1029673/4 "2026-04-30T17:02:54Z")
Hockey season does the same thing. Never bugged me. Love playoff hockey and the longer series evens out the luck factor a little. Similarly, I was happy when baseball went from 5 to 7 in the LCS in 1985 (and now is a mix with the additional rounds, but at least the last two are best of 7 rather than only the World Series.) ---
**Author:** ![Velocity](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/velocity/32/18006_2.png) [@Velocity](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Velocity)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2026, 5:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-the-nba-really-need-7-games-to-determine-a-winner/1029673/5 "2026-04-30T17:09:12Z")
Yeah, I’ve always felt a best-of-5 does what a best-of-7 does, and would reduce player fatigue while also increasing the importance of each game. But, the league wants revenue, and a best-of-7 is probably the sweet spot for maximum money - a best-of-9 would lead to much worse quality of play. ---
**Author:** ![keeganst94](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/a6a055/32.png) [@keeganst94](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/keeganst94)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2026, 5:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-the-nba-really-need-7-games-to-determine-a-winner/1029673/6 "2026-04-30T17:36:28Z")
Money is part of the answer. But additional games are genuinely better if you want to find out what team is better. Single elimination tournaments, like the NFL playoffs or March madness, are far more susceptible to random chance. ---
**Author:** ![Quondam\_Mechanic](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/quondam_mechanic/32/3404_2.png) [@Quondam\_Mechanic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quondam_Mechanic)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2026, 6:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-the-nba-really-need-7-games-to-determine-a-winner/1029673/7 "2026-04-30T18:07:48Z")
Depends a lot on the sport, too. Baseball is much more flukey than football. ---
**Author:** ![Hampshire](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hampshire/32/4887_2.png) [@Hampshire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hampshire)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2026, 8:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-the-nba-really-need-7-games-to-determine-a-winner/1029673/8 "2026-04-30T20:19:45Z")
Yeah, I could appreciate both the NBA and NHL going to best of 3 for round 1, best of 5 for round 2, and best of 7 for the semi-finals and finals. ---
**Author:** ![Telemark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/telemark/32/372_2.png) [@Telemark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Telemark)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2026, 9:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-the-nba-really-need-7-games-to-determine-a-winner/1029673/9 "2026-04-30T21:10:56Z")
> [@Quondam\_Mechanic](#): > > Baseball is much more flukey than football. I still liked the one game Wild Card in MLB from 2012-2021 but it was flukey. But we’re playing baseball into November now. ---
**Author:** ![Stratocaster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/stratocaster/32/16393_2.png) [@Stratocaster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stratocaster)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2026, 9:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-the-nba-really-need-7-games-to-determine-a-winner/1029673/10 "2026-04-30T21:12:53Z")
> [@Quondam\_Mechanic](#): > > Depends a lot on the sport, too. Baseball is much more flukey than football. Absolutely. Seven games is too short to be a fair assessment of the better team in baseball. ---
**Author:** ![Railer13](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/railer13/32/9742_2.png) [@Railer13](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Railer13)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2026, 9:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-the-nba-really-need-7-games-to-determine-a-winner/1029673/11 "2026-04-30T21:47:22Z")
> [@Hampshire](#): > > both the NBA and NHL going to best of 3 for round 1 The NBA did that for a short period of time in the mid-80s. 3 vs 6 and 4 vs 5, IIRC. But a couple of major upsets in those short series convince the league to go to longer series. ---
**Author:** ![Snarky\_Kong](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a183cd/32.png) [@Snarky\_Kong](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snarky_Kong)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2026, 9:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-the-nba-really-need-7-games-to-determine-a-winner/1029673/12 "2026-04-30T21:58:35Z")
You don’t necessarily want a pure test of the better team though. Acknowledging you don’t necessarily know what better going in, but you need the mystery. I believe 538 did an article on optimal series lengths for different sports years ago. ---
**Author:** ![Stratocaster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/stratocaster/32/16393_2.png) [@Stratocaster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stratocaster)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2026, 12:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-the-nba-really-need-7-games-to-determine-a-winner/1029673/13 "2026-05-01T00:17:17Z")
> [@Snarky\_Kong](#): > > You don’t necessarily want a pure test of the better team though. Acknowledging you don’t necessarily know what better going in, but you need the mystery. Not sure how to parse this. ---
**Author:** ![Snarky\_Kong](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a183cd/32.png) [@Snarky\_Kong](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snarky_Kong)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2026, 12:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-the-nba-really-need-7-games-to-determine-a-winner/1029673/14 "2026-05-01T00:35:40Z")
If the better team always wins you often know what team is going to win before the series starts. You want the ability for the worse team to win. ---
**Author:** ![Stratocaster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/stratocaster/32/16393_2.png) [@Stratocaster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stratocaster)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2026, 12:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-the-nba-really-need-7-games-to-determine-a-winner/1029673/15 "2026-05-01T00:45:32Z")
I’ll disagree. And we certainly don’t react as if this is so. We cling to the fiction that the better team won (for the most part). I don’t recall any parades where the winners and their fans declared, “Hooray! We won this week! If we played again next week, who knows how it would turn out?” Rather, it’s “We are the champions, the undisputed best!” That’s part of the fun, but it’s an illusion. I think if you had playoffs after every month of the season, you could (and probably would) have several different “world champions.” To me, football is least susceptible to this, even though it’s a single game elimination for each phase of the playoffs. Then basketball. Hockey and baseball may or may not produce the best team as winner. IMO, of course. ---
**Author:** ![Snarky\_Kong](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a183cd/32.png) [@Snarky\_Kong](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snarky_Kong)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2026, 1:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-the-nba-really-need-7-games-to-determine-a-winner/1029673/16 "2026-05-01T01:01:59Z")
There’s not a single person on the planet that thinks the 2007 Giants were better than the Patriots or that the 1980 US hockey team were better than the Soviets, but we’re damn glad the sports are such that those outcome can occur. > [@Stratocaster](#): > > I don’t recall any parades where the winners and their fans declared, “Hooray! We won this week! If we played again next week, who knows how it would turn out?” I’m not sure what this has to do with my point. It in no way diminishes a championship if it’s won by an underdog. I think the most often case though, is that you don’t really know who the better team is before or after the game. 7 games in a high variance outcome isn’t enough to tell if one team would win 55% of the games if they played each other 10M times. ---
**Author:** ![Stratocaster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/stratocaster/32/16393_2.png) [@Stratocaster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stratocaster)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2026, 1:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-the-nba-really-need-7-games-to-determine-a-winner/1029673/17 "2026-05-01T01:11:51Z")
Again, just my opinion, but when the underdog wins, I think that team’s fans crow about who the true better team is. It’s part of the fun. I think that’s kind of the silly, unspoken “secret” in baseball. We pretend we’ve identified the World Champions. In reality, we’ve identified who won that week. And I know lots of Giants fans. That win “proved” they were better and the Patriots were frauds. Don’t ask for their logic. There wasn’t any. ---
**Author:** ![Snarky\_Kong](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a183cd/32.png) [@Snarky\_Kong](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snarky_Kong)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2026, 1:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-the-nba-really-need-7-games-to-determine-a-winner/1029673/18 "2026-05-01T01:18:14Z")
> [@Stratocaster](#): > > Again, just my opinion, but when the underdog wins, I think that team’s fans crow about who the true better team is. It’s part of the fun. We’re talking past each other because I don’t see how this implies anything at all about why you want a system where the better team always wins. If the actual better teams wins the fans talk shit and have fun. If the worse team wins the fans talk shit and have fun. ---
**Author:** ![Stratocaster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/stratocaster/32/16393_2.png) [@Stratocaster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stratocaster)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2026, 1:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-the-nba-really-need-7-games-to-determine-a-winner/1029673/19 "2026-05-01T01:22:22Z")
> [@Snarky\_Kong](#): > > We’re talking past each other because I don’t see how this implies anything at all about why you want a system where the better team always wins. That may well be where we’re talking past each other. I don’t think a system like that’s possible. I guess the regular season is probably the best gauge. A 7-game series certainly isn’t, but I offer no practical alternative. So, I’ll live with what we have. 😊 ---
**Author:** ![Railer13](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/railer13/32/9742_2.png) [@Railer13](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Railer13)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2026, 2:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-the-nba-really-need-7-games-to-determine-a-winner/1029673/20 "2026-05-01T02:34:14Z")
> [@Snarky\_Kong](#): > > I think the most often case though, is that you don’t really know who the better team is before or after the game. So, in most cases, you have no idea who the better team is after the game is over? What? [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-the-nba-really-need-7-games-to-determine-a-winner/1029673.md?page=2)