For the most part, the NBA is in charge when determining when their playoff games will be played. In the regular season, teams sometimes need to be out of their home building for extended amounts of time due to other events, but when the playoffs roll around, the NBA typically gets what it wants. Certainly, a team is not going to be required to play two games in two nights because of a show that normally owns the time slot. Until now.

The Chicago Bulls have recently learned that there are some shows that cannot be interrupted by a playoff game that could determine which team goes onto the NBA finals. Or, at least there is one such show: Oprah’s finale, of course. According to the Miami Herald’s Barry Jackson:

The NBA informed a few involved parties before Tuesday’s Bulls game that if the Heat and Chicago win their series in six games of fewer, Game 1 of the Eastern Conference finals would need to be moved from Monday to Sunday night because the United Center likely is unavailable Monday to allow Oprah Winfrey’s crew to set up for the taping of one of her final shows. If the Heat or Bulls series go seven games, Game 1 of the Eastern finals would be Wednesday.

The NBA is a popular league and people are absolutely looking forward to seeing LeBron James and Derrick Rose go up against each other. However, no one can go up against Oprah, particularly when she’s ending her phenomenal show at the same time. After all, this is someone who sent three extremely hard-to-read William Faulkner books to the top of the bestseller list simply by including them on her book club list. Taping a finale in front of 21,000 people at the United Center clearly takes precedence. Perhaps there will be a performance by Shellac!

The Bulls are scheduled to play their Game 6 on Thursday and the Heat is scheduled to play their Game 6 on Friday, so moving the first game of the next round back a day is well within playoff limits. Moreover, it will be good for the teams to get an extra day off. So, fans who are upset with the change should know that it really isn’t going to lead to any issues.

Of course, it is possible that the Bulls will lose their final two games in this series against the Hawks and the first game of the East finals will be in Miami instead, on Monday as scheduled. Unfortunately, this means the NBC show “Good Morning, Miami” will have to be moved to Tuesday night, so the fans of Mark Feuerstein will need to find another solution to see him.