The NBA announced today that their development league, imaginatively called the NBA D-League, will use a new playoff format.  The three division winners will qualify (as seeds #1, #2, and #3) along with the next five highest teams in the standings.  The highest seeded division winner will pick its opponent from the teams from the bottom four seeds.  The #2 seed will pick from the remaining teams followed by the #3 seed with the #4 seed getting the not-so-fat kid everyone is scared of.

Now, some would say that this is ground breaking but I would beg to differ.  In fact, I would claim that the NBA D-League has stolen their idea and not given the originator any credit.

The idea of high seeds picking their opponent was originally proposed by Hockeycentral at Noon host Nick Kypreos.  His proposal had the #1 seed in the NHL picking its opponent from all of the other 15 teams qualified for the playoffs with the next highest remaining seed picking until all eight series were made.  The high seeds would also get this privilege in the second and third rounds.  The only real difference between the D-League system and the Nicknundrum (as it was dubbed by Hockeycentral host Darren Millard) is that the NBA gives a bonus for winning the division and forces the choice to be from the bottom half of the rankings.

I like the idea.  If only Nick would get the credit when one of the big leagues adopt it…