NBA League Pass Roulette Vol. 0 (The Intro)

What will be discovered if you watch a bunch of NBA games at random?

Hey there! I hope you and your loved ones are doing well, staying safe, and keeping busy during these unprecedented times.

Back in mid-March, the NBA announced that it would be providing free access to its League Pass platform through April 22nd. This would allow fans to view games from the 2019-20 season — as well as 65 classic games — on-demand.

I saw this as an amazing opportunity. League Pass normally doesn’t fit into my budget during the season, so this preview would give me the chance to take in the platform while also catching up on games I missed or “meant to watch” earlier in the year.

However, I quickly realized that I wanted to experience things a little differently. I wanted to spice things up a bit, as opposed to just viewing all the marquee matchups and calling it a day.

Thus, League Pass Roulette was born. With this new project, I will be picking games from the 2019-20 NBA season at random, watching them, and writing down any stray observations I have along the way.

The game selection process is straightforward but still tense. First, I use Random.org’s Calendar Date Generator to select a date between Oct. 22, 2019 and Mar. 11, 2020. Once I get a date, I use Google’s Random Number Generator to pick a numeral depending on how many games are scheduled. The number determines which game I choose depending on its order on the NBA.com scores page, which is chronological by tip-off time. Lastly, I use Google’s Coin Flipper to determine which feed I watch: Heads for the home broadcast, tails for road team’s.

I plan to watch as many games as I can until the preview is over. I will be posting my observations here at CrucialBaskets.com three games at a time. This will include a summary of my takeaways, and my Three Stars of the Game, and the Just-Not-Their-Day Award for the player that struggled the most.

I’m so excited about this project, because there are so many great NBA moments to potentially take in. The league played 971 games before suspending the season, so there is no shortage of things to explore and performances to marvel at. Let’s see what we find.

I hope you enjoy this as much as I do. Is this something you would consider doing yourself? Let me know in the comments. Stay safe out there, wash your hands, and thank you for reading!