NBA commissioner Adam Silver. Presse Sports-USA TODAY Sports

NBA misses opportunity with trade-deadline schedule

By Sean Keane | Last updated 1/25/24

The NBA has been ducking the NFL all season long. They should have done it again with the trade deadline.

For the third year in a row, the NBA scheduled the transaction-heavy trade deadline on the Thursday of Super Bowl week. NBA teams can't make deals after 3 p.m. EST on Feb. 8 — roughly 72 hours before Super Bowl LVIII.

It feels like a missed opportunity to grab media attention in a sports landscape where football is king. The NBA already moved its showcase TNT games to Tuesdays to avoid "Thursday Night Football" and had three different Sundays without basketball games.

Those days were left vacant for the In-Season Tournament and for Christmas Eve, but the league's unwillingness to compete with the NFL for ratings likely contributed to choosing Sundays for the off-days.

But the NBA decided in 2017 that the trade deadline would move to 10 days before the All-Star Game, rather than happening the Thursday after the game. This was a reaction to the Sacramento Kings agreeing to trade All-Star DeMarcus Cousins to the New Orleans Pelicans — while the All-Star Game was being played.

Cousins found out after the game, ironically after complaining that reporters were asking him about trade rumors.

"Man, give me a break. I just need one All-Star where it's All-Star questions." DeMarcus Cousins on trade rumors pic.twitter.com/JV04Sab0K8
— Ben Golliver (@BenGolliver) February 20, 2017

Now, their big day of trades is happening amid the hype for the most popular sporting event of the year. The NBA has a unique opportunity in February when football is over, spring training hasn't started, March Madness is a month away and the only competing sport is hockey.

How does the NBA exploit that opportunity? They take a week off for the All-Star break.

If they're already taking that break, let the deadline happen during that week! Why not let All-Star Weekend, where the entire NBA world assembles, be a place where executives can work out deals?

Or schedule the deadline for the week after the NFL conference championship games when there are no imminent playoff games and Super Bowl hype hasn't started yet.

Instead, they've chosen the busiest Thursday in February for their big day.

With the trade deadline scheduled a week earlier, or a week later, the NBA could dominate sports news, and the league wouldn't have to play second fiddle to the NFL yet again.

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