But if relegation existed, that game could well determine whether Carmelo Anthony and the other Knicks heirs to Willis Reed and Patrick Ewing would be playing their games next season in San Antonio and Miami, or in Sioux Falls and Reno. Or whether Detroit would suffer that fate. Now that’s real drama.

And imagine what it would be like if a big-name team, in particular, got relegated. What could be more delightful than seeing Kobe Bryant and his fellow highly paid members of the Lakers suiting up to play the Fort Wayne Mad Ants in a D League game?

With relegation, of course, comes promotion, with other teams moving up to take the place of the clubs moving down. That, in turn, could deliver a needed jolt of energy to professional basketball nationwide. There are 351 Division I college basketball teams. There is no reason that there could not be 100 thriving professional basketball teams in the country — if those teams had the carrot of a real chance of promotion to the N.B.A. someday.

Would not Seattle support such a team? Tampa Bay, St. Louis and Pittsburgh? Couldn’t Chicago have more than one team, and New York and Los Angeles more than two?

Such a system would also mean longer careers for fading N.B.A. stars and more jobs for younger American professional players. And a better chance for a college star to ply his profession for the Louisville Thoroughbreds or the Harlem Renaissance rather than for Real Madrid or the Liaoning Flying Leopards.