As the NBA hits its final two weeks of the regular season, playoff positioning in the East and West Conferences is starting to take shape. Five of the eight seeds in the East have clinched a playoff spot, and the Golden State Warriors plus the Houston Rockets have clinched their respective divisions in the West.

However, there are still a handful of seeds that are up for grabs and many teams will fight till the final day of the regular season to secure a position in the postseason.

Off the court, the NBA is taking full advantage of the tight playoff race, especially in the Western Conference.

Commissioner Adam Silver has said since he took the position in 2016 that the league would look into microtransactions in the near future. This period seems to be in its baby steps, as the league released a notification to some of the its most hardcore fans, asking them to watch the fourth quarter of Saturday night’s game between the Oklahoma City Thunder and Miami Heat – two teams fighting for a playoff spot – for $0.99.

Wow. @NBA experimenting with in app micro-transactions, offering 4th quarter of a game for $0.99. The future is here. pic.twitter.com/pu602ZAokn

— Vasu Kulkarni (@Vasu) March 24, 2018

US media network The Verge reported that this microtransaction was only released to hardcore fans as a marketing test created by the NBA. Would fans have a general interest in seeing the ending to important games for a small fee?

Currently, the league only offers two season-long digital streaming packages, League Pass and NBA Digital. League Pass allows fans to watch any game throughout the regular season while NBA Digital offers fans to choose one team to watch regardless of where they are throughout the season. Both options are targeted mainly for fans of the league that may support a team but live outside of their favourite team’s market.

This marketing strategy put forth by the NBA certainly brings up some important discussion points for all fans of sport. A fair criticism of basketball in general is that the games have little to no importance until the fourth quarter comes around, so it makes sense that the league would take full advantage of its most exciting portion of the game. This strategy could be extended once the NBA Playoffs arrive in April. The next question is whether or not we could start to see other major sports push forth a similar marketing strategy just to fatten their wallets a little more: there isn’t one sport in the world that fans would argue the early portion of the match has a greater importance than the end.

I would pay the microtransaction if the fee stays at around a dollar. In fact, if the game has a massive amount of importance, I’d probably pay more. For example, the NBA could bump up the price depending on the significance of the game, like Game 7 of the Finals.

Also, if you have a problem with seeing the Cavs and Warriors again, we need to have a chat. However, that could be another article on its own.