The past two or so weeks of the NBA’s offseason might represent the most important weeks in the league’s history. On Oct. 6, the NBA announced a new broadcasting deal with ESPN and Turner Sports set to begin in 2016 for a whopping $2.66 billion per year. In response, megastars Dirk Nowitzki and LeBron James have called for a shortening of the 82-game NBA regular season.

LeBron cites the toll that the long season takes on the players’ bodies while Dirk feels the best teams in each conference can be determined in fewer games. The lone retort from NBA executives has come from the greatest former NBA player of them all, Michael Jordan, who declared that an 82-game season was not an issue, citing his love for the game.

Both sides of this debate are correct in their own right but neither hit on the ideal solution for players, fans, owners and the quality of the game: abolish the conference system. Ridding the NBA of its Eastern and Western conferences will result in fewer, but more meaningful games and ensure that the best teams truly make the playoffs.

Eliminating the conferences would create a leaner, healthier and more interesting NBA. First, it’s vital to understand that Jordan’s love for the game and Nowitzki’s desire for a shorter season are not mutually exclusive: the love for the game can and should lead to support for a shorter season if it will make basketball better overall.

Those seventh and eighth seeded teams in the East who would not have made the playoffs in the West are probably going to lose in the first round anyway. Only one number eight seed has upset a number one seed since the NBA playoffs expanded the first round to a best-of-seven series in 2003 and that upset occurred in the West.

The conference system is archaic, arbitrary and rewards consistent mediocrity or for more seasoned NBA fans, the Atlanta Hawks. Last season, the Phoenix Suns missed the playoffs by one game despite winning 48 games and finishing 14 games over .500. The Suns had identical records to Toronto and Chicago who were the third and fourth seeds in the East while the Hawks, who won all of 38 games with a much easier schedule as a result of playing in the East, got the privilege of competing in the playoffs as an eighth seed.

Simply put, the Eastern Conference does not deserve eight playoff teams; there are years when it does not deserve seven. In fact, with the exception of the strike-shortened season of 2011-2012, you would have to go back to the 2004-2005 season to find a time when all eight playoff teams in the Eastern Conference had a winning record. In that span, not one Western Conference team has made the playoffs with a sub-.500 record.

Depending on perspective, either the Suns simply did not win enough games despite playing a much tougher schedule in the superior conference or Phoenix is just in the wrong part of the country. The problem with the schedule argument is that teams in the East play easier schedules than every team in the West because there are more intra-conference games than out-of-conference games. The status quo of the NBA doesn’t reward actual winning; it rewards geography.

The NBA is already the most predictable of the four major sports because favored teams essentially wear down weaker ones over the large number of possessions due to their talent. Anything that can be reasonably done to increase competition and interest in the regular season should be done. Reducing the number of games also makes scheduling much easier because fewer games also means fewer games on consecutive nights. This helps parity, as teams who play on back-to-back nights tend to have decreased win probabilities, for most back-to-back games are scheduled for teams on the road.

The quick turnaround, travel components and basic fatigue exacerbate the disadvantage those teams incur from being on the road. Additionally, determining who gets a back-to-back game is arbitrary. This season, the Charlotte Bobcats have 21 sets of back-to-back games, while the New York Knicks and Denver Nuggets only have 14.

The postseason format is pretty simple as well. The top 16 teams in the NBA make the playoffs and seeds 1-6 are held to be division winners. Once the bracket is set, it essentially proceeds like March Madness until a champion is crowned. There could be additional changes to the playoff scheduling, like making the round of 16 matchups a best-of-five series instead of a best-of-seven series. However, compared to the larger idea of abandoning the flawed conference system, the series length matters little.

Regardless, this idea is a win for the fans, players and individuals who believe in the meritocracy of sports. Convincing the owners is the most difficult and most unlikely part, but if the players can gain sufficient leverage and use collective bargaining effectively, this pipedream could become a reality.