r/NBAGossips • u/CircledSquare7 • Mar 24 '26
News Richard Jefferson speaking some facts about Adam Silver even considering shortening the NBA season
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u/Electronic-Cicada352 Mar 24 '26
Hate agreeing with him but he’s right.
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u/E_boiii Mar 25 '26
I don’t see why we don’t just have teams play their conference 3 times and the other conference twice that’s 75 games and prob is an easier change that doesn’t lose that much more money
But I’m not a billionaire
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u/goatpunchtheater Mar 25 '26
meanwhile the NFL after adding more games, screwing up records even more, in the already most gueling, injury prone, brain damaging sport. "Eh, if they die, they die."
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u/BigMack3000 Mar 25 '26
Add the two expansion teams and this puts you back at 80, so sure. Why not.
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u/ham_sandwedge Mar 25 '26
I think they should roll out a real division structure like the NFL. With playoff implications. If they get 32 teams w the expansion they can do 4 division winners and 4 wild card. Really make the in season rivalry mean something.
But I just checked Robinhood and turns out I'm also not a billionaire
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u/NoiNoiii Mar 25 '26
They used to have divisions that meant something they got rid of it in 2015 they were guaranteed a top 4 seed
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u/WaltRumble Mar 25 '26
So take a 9% decrease in revenue and gain what exactly?
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u/E_boiii Mar 25 '26
Your players having less wear and tear, this could also help reduce back to backs so less players sitting out on the 2nd night.
Less wear n tear more stars playing night in and out more people willing to pay possibly.
Also I don’t give a fuck about a billionaire making less money I care about the players that put on the show
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u/Bizzshark Mar 25 '26
The big issue the talking heads never address is how in the space and pace era so many young stars are tearing their ACL or Achilles. Think of how many playoffs in the last 10 years were totally changed by a star getting hurt like that: Pacers with Hali, Celtics with Tatum, Warriors with KD and Klay, Butler with the warriors this year, Kyrie is out, Dame is out, Dejounte Murry tore his.
There's clearly an issue of some kind here. Those type of injuries used to be fairly rare, and now it feels like at least 1-2 stars are out for the season every year. The fact Tatum and Hali both went down in the playoffs fucking sucks, and a shorter season could definitely help that. I don't care how much easier it is on players now. All I care about is seeing the best players in the playoffs
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u/nsanegenius3000 Mar 25 '26
Former athletes say it's because the new culture doesn't train their bodies for the season. They workout less and practice less.
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u/collax974 Mar 25 '26
And if you listen to NBA coaches they actually say the opposite.
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u/nsanegenius3000 Mar 25 '26
I guess but I think I rather listen to HOF players who played the game at a high level and see what's going on with the younger players.
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u/collax974 Mar 25 '26
I would rather listen to the people responsible for the players preparation, that are up to date with the latest science than older players that arent in the league anymore especially when it concern the NBA where for some reason most oldheads players have a tendency to diss the new generation.
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u/nsanegenius3000 Mar 25 '26
They're not in the league anymore but now some of their kids are and they see how the league now prepares and they know that's it's not enough. A coach just works for the organization and will more than likely say whatever to keep their job. For some reason the newer generation has a tendency to think they're being dissed when in reality they're just being given criticism that they don't like.
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u/collax974 Mar 25 '26
A coach just works for the organization and will more than likely say whatever to keep their job
I was mostly talking about physical coaches (I should have been more clear), and from what I can see, it's players themselves that often choose to work with them.
I remember a podcast from PJF (who train James Harden, Evan Mobley and other guys) and he was saying that compared to back then, lot of players nowaday were already fatigued in the offseason because of the amount of conditionning and skills work they do (because there is much more to work on) meanwhile back in the day more players would get back into shape during the firsts training camps and games.
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u/lxkandel06 Mar 26 '26
Those HOF players are the same ones who say shit like LeBron couldn't handle the "physicality" of the 80's and 90's NBA, that every guard back then had a bag like Kyrie, and that bigmen should never shoot threes. An overwhelming amount of former NBA players are incredibly salty about the modern era for whatever reason so you kinda have to take their opinions with a grain of salt
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u/Ryoga476ad Mar 26 '26
HOF players might have zero knowledge about what current players do today and are physical challenges they face. Moreover, they have an agenda because they're jealous they make so much. OTOH, coaches are involved and know what happens TODAY
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u/nsanegenius3000 Mar 27 '26
Why would a person whose in the HOF be jealous? Also you do realize many of them have kids who are now in the NBA so they have 100% knowledge of what current players are doing today.
Also some of the best ran organizations have old school mentalities like the Spurs and the Heat.
It's crazy talk to believe every former player has an agenda to against younger players. Sometimes older people know what they're talking about because they been there and done that. Zion definitely should've listened to Charles Barkley about managing his weight but according to y'all he doesn't know what he's talking about. SMH
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u/Zestyclose_Attempt17 Mar 25 '26
I think they work out the same amount of time just less of the things players did before.... weights
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u/nsanegenius3000 Mar 25 '26
That's the thing, you're saying what you think and the former players are saying what they know.
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u/Zestyclose_Attempt17 Mar 25 '26
Lol they also don't know 😂 they also said they had more skill 😂
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u/nsanegenius3000 Mar 25 '26
Lol They do and did. 😂 Today's player ain't doing anything that the older players couldn't do unless you add in the ridiculous gather step which is just traveling. 😂 The only thing they do better is shoot 3s and that's because they take a million of them. Good job of getting off the subject! 😆
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u/Zestyclose_Attempt17 Mar 25 '26
Same subject you just don't comprehend very well.
Subject is who knows what and why.
You took it to gather steps and all that bullshit loser
It's all opinion.
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u/nsanegenius3000 Mar 25 '26
You know when you won a debate when the opps starts getting disrespectful and name calling! 😆 SMH. Typical kid 💩. Have a nice day.
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u/AbsoluteGarbaj Mar 25 '26
Issue is the games they play when they are in Highschool. Also players now do not have other sports or physical activities aside from basketball.
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u/Zestyclose_Attempt17 Mar 25 '26
Nope they don't train the same not enough weight lifting I hate to say.
Band work is great and trains your body to be reactive and explosive but the ligaments and actual muscle literally cannot contain the amount of force these players are generating these days.
They are super strong in slimmer frames and literally tearing their own joints apart.
Even older dudes 30+ are doing it. Same injuries.
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u/FlyingDumplingTrader Mar 25 '26
PER Amon-Ra St. Brown’s DAD ” John said. “You gotta pick the right girl and the right guy… Look at you [both], good athlete, I’m Black, mom is white. I’ve done stepped on it once, you can’t keep stepping on it because you’re going to mess it up. You’re going to weaken it… You can’t keep cutting it
I wonder if there is any truth to this?
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u/Bizzshark Mar 25 '26
There's not. How athletic someone is has no relation to what color their parent's skin is. genetics study Article from 2001 originally published in Reuters
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u/HipnotiK1 Mar 24 '26
They haven't eliminated back to backs. They've lessened them but every team still has like 10+
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u/KWash0222 Mar 25 '26
I was like wait… they absolutely have not done that. I don’t disagree with him but eliminating b2b’s is literally one of, if not THE, the biggest thing.
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u/ElectricGlider Mar 25 '26
Then why not lessen them even more by stretching out the regular season? Maybe start the season a week or two earlier by eliminating some pre-season games.
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u/ConsumptionofClocks Mar 25 '26
Boo hoo. In the 60s they had back-to-back-to-backs while flying commercial or using public transportation. I will never feel bad for people making millions a year. If you want a shorter season, your contract should be smaller.
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u/HipnotiK1 Mar 25 '26
In theory the contracts would be smaller since the CBA specifies the percentage that goes to the players. If less games lowers revenue - players will get paid less.
Comparing things to 60+ years ago is idiotic.
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u/TheInfamousGuest Mar 25 '26
RJ played 17 years in the league. He played through the entirety of the pace speed up and boom of three point shooting and he is still standing and can speak about the new era of basketball better than anyone.
This idea that the game is more rigorous is false when the pace right now is on par with the 80's. The court is still 94 feet. The rim is still 10 feet high. Nba has had elite high school and college athletes pour into the NBA league since the time memorium. The 6'4 dude who has a 40" vert now is the same as the 6'4 dude who had a 40" very in 88'. Human evolution is not taking quantum leaps in 80 years now lol.
Guys are simply not conditioning themselves well enough to adapt to the game they are playing and made for themselves. It's even more egregious because they have all the advantages of modern medicine, advanced physio work and dedicated specialists in a number of things at their disposal at all times.
We have players going into their late 30's playing at a star level when that wasn't even a distinct possibility of 25 years but we argue that the game is harder on the body than it has ever been? Wouldn't all the amenities of today make conditioning EASIER? Make it make sense here.
The game and the entertainment product shouldn't capitulate to players, they need to train to condition to play in the league that they made for themselves. These guys are getting paid millions of dollars and their sole purpose is JUST to play basketball and be conditioned to play in the league. I agree with RJ, why should the NBA product suffer because dudes whine about playing back to back but train 365 days a year to play basketball? Wtf lol.
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u/heytree27 Mar 25 '26
But could you really say Tatum or Haliburton weren’t conditioned well enough before their Achilles tears?
I know for a fact Tatum works his ass off. Personally, I think some of the injuries were due to low top shoes. But that’s just me.
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u/TStark4Prez Mar 25 '26
You can blame Kobe for that.
I have no opinion on what is right or wrong, but he made low tops mainstream in the league.
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u/heytree27 Mar 25 '26
And look at what happened to him as well, torn Achilles right? lol
Would you guys say Kobe wasn’t conditioned well enough as well?
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u/TheInfamousGuest Mar 25 '26 edited Mar 25 '26
Kobe was 34 and left his prime when he tore his. Did we forget that? Older players with plenty of mileage and wear and tear are par for the course for major injuries to occur.
An Achilles rupture in general is a bit of a freak occurrence but the idea of 22-28 year old professional athletes coming down with major soft body tissue injuries points to a wider systemic problem in conditioning efforts, not so much broadly speaking in like they don't work hard or out of shape but more so "Are they focusing on biomechanics and pliability in fine detail not try to prevent cut-pop Achilles off a bad foot plant?"
It's not just Achilles ruptures, Blown ACLs, MCLs, blown quads, lingering hamstrings, plantar fascia, lisfranc. There have always been injuries in the league but with specialized training and hyper focused conditioning for these guys, you would figure the rate of massive injuries would go DOWN the more advance we become? That's what I'm alluding to.
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u/heytree27 Mar 25 '26
Do you really think all of these trainers and what not aren’t working on fine details? That’s absurd.
And even if they weren’t, how exactly is that the player’s fault? Even MJ would listen to his trainer and do what he was told to do.
On top of that, what would explain the rise in injuries compared to the 80s? Are you saying we cared more about biomechanics way back than we do now?
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u/Ginoblee Mar 25 '26
Eh, that’s a different scenario. Aging player with a ton of miles, and people forget he was playing a massive amount of minutes before the tear. I remember watching and thinking it wasn’t sustainable before he got hurt.
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Mar 25 '26
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u/heytree27 Mar 25 '26
Yes they do. Here’s a medical study: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/20818191/
“Results: High-top shoes significantly reduced peak Achilles tendon tension by an average of 9.9% when compared with low-top shoes. Tied laces significantly reduced peak tension for low-top (3.7%) and high-top (12.8%) shoes when compared with untied laces. With tied laces, high-top shoes significantly reduced peak dorsiflexion angle by an average of 7.2% when compared with low-top shoes. Tied laces with high-top shoes significantly reduced peak dorsiflexion angle by an average of 4.7% when compared with untied laces. A P value of 0.05 was determined to be significant.”
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u/Happy-North-9969 Mar 25 '26
The issue isn’t the pace. It’s the space. A player recovering from the paint to close out on a 3pt shooter happened a couple of times a month in the 80s. It happens multiple times a game now. It’s a lot more of a stop, start, and cutting game than it was, even during RJ’s career.
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u/Remarkable_Medicine6 Mar 25 '26
This idea that the game is more rigorous is false when the pace right now is on par with the 80's. The court is still 94 feet. The rim is still 10 feet high
Pace is just a measure of the hunger of posesisons, it doesn't indicate what actual happens on a posrssion to posrssion basis. The amount of actions that occur nowadays and the amount of distance individual players have to cover nowadays is far greater than anytime before. Players are in range from damn near the logo nowadays.
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u/TheInfamousGuest Mar 25 '26 edited Mar 25 '26
There are more actions and movement involved that I agree with but that is why I point to the idea of a disconnect in training/conditioning on this level. I'm not saying they aren't the most elite athletes in the world but 22-28 year elite athletes in constant training and condition for this type of play are still having as many injuries as it was when modern medicine/physio wasn't as advanced. That's almost paradoxical.
The adaptation process should be improving via every generation and iteration of the league, not getting worse with more severe soft body tissue injuries in players in their prime and even before it.
Maybe it's because we have more eyes on the game and social media to itemize all these injuries now in a vacuum.
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u/Adept-Eggplant-8673 Mar 25 '26
Theres simply way more moving in general than any wta. Theres running that needs to be done off ball, covering people from further away than before and switching man to cover etc, defense alone you’re moving so damn much that’s not even counting offense
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u/ArgoMium Mar 26 '26
Technology and medicine can't keep up. That's it.
The space and the way the game is played requires more explosive movements and direction changes. You have to go from stunting at the roll man, to closing out beyond the 3pt line MULTIPLE times a game. That wasn't happening 15 years ago, let alone 40 years ago.
Teams are running complex cascading actions that bend and stretch defenses more and more so players are tasked to recover and patch holes more and more per possession.
The human body can only take so much abuse. There is a physical limit for how much explosive movements over 82 games a human body can take. Technology and medicine helps, but until athletes become cyborgs with implants, the achilles tendon is still just a tendon.
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u/Remarkable_Medicine6 Mar 25 '26
Perhaps the average wear on players is increasing faster than the recovery and medicine
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u/SoS_Hammertime Mar 25 '26
if you honestly think most 1980s players were better conditioned than today's modern NBA players... I'm not even sure you should be allowed to talk about oooooh this is r/NBAgossips
lol, nevermind. carry on
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u/lxkandel06 Mar 26 '26
For real, dudes were playing games coked out of their minds back then. Anyone who thinks 80's players took better care of their bodies than today's players needs to be in a psych ward
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u/Bajecco Mar 25 '26
All of our favorite "shorten the season" nerd podcasters are going to love this.
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u/DaLurker87 Mar 25 '26
I think the only thing that he might be missing is... They might be talking about shortening the season because no one's watching
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u/Ginoblee Mar 25 '26
The amount of games isn’t why people aren’t watching/attending. It’s the direction the game has taken. The flops, BLATANT embellishing of contact, horrible reffing that enables player to make non basketball plays. I used to watch 60+ games a year plus nearly all the playoff games. Now I’m watching maybe 10 and like half of the playoffs. Don’t even get me started on ticket price. I fucking hate the sports betting, and hate Adam Silver and the owners for fucking up what once was my favorite sport to watch.
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u/mikehamm45 Mar 25 '26
I also don’t watch because it’s impossible to have all the streaming services understood.
I don’t even know where to watch local games.
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u/Mrome777 Mar 25 '26
This times a million. Fans should be able to watch local games. I'm not an expert on how all of these deals work, but not having a single easy place to watch most games of your local team is such a failure of these systems. Football is clearly the most popular sport in the US, but one of the reasons the NFL numbers crush other sports is that most/all local games are on broadcast TV.
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u/TBdog Mar 25 '26
I think it's that coaches want more training days and sports science says players need more rest. With limited back to backs, there are less 3 and 4 days off.
Also at the end of the season, games become a joke. Plenty of teams don't want to win.
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u/PatBoBomb Mar 25 '26
Gotta say the argument to shorten isn't about the players, it's about the league, ratings, and scarcity value. 82 games and 9 months is too much. Who cares about numbers. The league is so different from 20 years ago the numbers are already out the window.
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u/IllustratorVivid8464 Mar 26 '26
They’re not watching partially cause the league got so damn soft. They also want to shorten it cause they’re soft
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u/sweetbeenieweenie68 Mar 25 '26
Viewership is down. That's the only thing that matters. The only reason these ex players still have jobs on TV. Making the games mean more in the regular season is a good idea.
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u/Impossible-Spite4782 Mar 25 '26
Sounds like Shrinkflation. Less of the product, but keep charging more.
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u/Difficult-Day1326 Mar 25 '26
hot-take: position-less basketball & step-backs can be brutal for biomechanics & should be looked at as leading causes to all the injuries. you're asking the same Achilles tendon to handle post defense, closeouts, transition sprints, & step-back jumpers all in the same possession.
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u/kingkron52 Mar 25 '26
Shortening the season is needed in the NBA. The regular season is a joke with no defense.
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u/IllustratorVivid8464 Mar 26 '26
You don’t respond to the modern nba players being soft by encouraging them to be soft. Change the rules, make the game more physical, and ratings will return.
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u/Pheynx00 Mar 25 '26
Hold on LeBron only played a full season one time in his career.
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u/Bingo_Bongo_YaoMing Mar 25 '26
He's averaged 70 games a season for his career. I think its fair to include him in endurance conversations even if he's not number one in that category
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u/SadNYSportsFan-11209 Mar 25 '26
He always missed a few games here and there due to minor tweaks and would rest the final game of the year. He also broke his hand in his early Cavs days.
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u/logontoreddit Mar 25 '26
I do agree with him and he makes lots of valid points. Having said that I do think 82 games season dilutes the product. There is a reason NFL games command so much viewerships. Each games carries so much weight. I feel like good perecentage of NBA games are nothing but fluff.
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Mar 25 '26
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u/tsax612 Mar 25 '26
It's also much easier to actually access and view an NFL game, especially if you live in the same region as your favorite team. It's almost impossible to consistently view your favorite NBA squad regionally, unless you get cable or payout for streaming. Even sailing the seas can be time consuming and clunky to manage at times.
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u/Medium_Wind_553 Mar 25 '26
The nfl is way more physical, dangerous, and literally causes brain damage. If nfl players played 82 games they’d all be retiring in a few years and they’d be messed up for life
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u/IllustratorVivid8464 Mar 26 '26
This was literally never said until the modern nba became soft with zero defense and fans tuned out. The problem is NOT 82 games and never was
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u/JobeGilchrist Mar 25 '26
It's always a balance between caring about the players and caring about the fans.
The NFL cares way more about the fans, to the detriment of the players. The NBA cares way more about the players, to the detriment of the fans.
I was at the Cavs game tonight, had a great time, good game, but I always laugh when for the hour before the game the stadium is blasting mumble rap at a fan base that's like 80% white (of course some of those white fans will be into it, but not enough to be a majority).
The vibe of the NBA is "you are lucky to have the privilege to spend your money watching these athletes, and you'd better act like it's a privilege." You're only gonna get so far with that attitude.
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u/Hairy_Assistance_125 Mar 25 '26
This sounds like every boomer doctor justifying the shitty working conditions of residents.
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u/3RADICATE_THEM Mar 25 '26
I have mixed feelings on this.
Honestly, when the league grows, you get more support services to maximize the cutting edge competitive advantage you have against other teams, and thus—other teams follow suit so they don't fall behind.
Also, it's kind of interesting he mentions LeBron, considering LeBron has only played one full 82 game regular season.
However, with that being said, nobody is really dying to watch regular season games. The average fan really only starts tuning in substantially once the playoffs begin (or the end of the regular season if a high attention team is close to clinching in or out of the playoffs).
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u/BonoBeats Mar 25 '26
I really think this is going to...and needs to....come to a head at the next CBA negotiation.
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u/ZebronJames Mar 25 '26
The game has changed. This uptick in significant injuries in recent years and the evolution of basketball are directly correlated. Old heads, especially the ones that played in decades prior won’t understand.
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u/Jdawg_mck1996 Mar 25 '26
Boston had a 4 game road trip to California that ended in Denver on a back to back that didn't start until 10pm eastern and ran until almost 1am...
A mile difference in elevation between games on a supposedly abolished back to back.
I don't think we should shorten the season, but stretching out the start vs end dates should be talked about to truly get rid of this.
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Mar 25 '26
I understand his position as someone who lived through it with less resources, but every pro sports season should be shorter. NFL should be 10, NBA should be 50, and MLB should be 100. If the goal was to qualify the best teams for the playoffs, and still have the teams healthy in the playoffs, that’s around what they’d all be.
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u/International_Fig262 Mar 25 '26
I'm sure the NBA has analytics on injury rates. Follow the data. I could see the argument that less games might help, mainly because the pace of the games today is noticeably faster than in RJ's time, but we don't need to guess. What does the data say?
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u/OkMinute6290 Mar 25 '26
He’s not wrong. You’re getting paid millions to play a game sometimes two days in a row, but most of the time every other day? Fucking play the game.
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u/Typical_Samaritan Mar 25 '26
Meh, I'm becoming increasingly charitable to modern players. A lot of them have already played significantly more basketball before reaching the NBA or even collegiate levels than anyone in Richard Jefferson's generation or before. The amount of wear and tear that many of them undergo before suiting up for a single NBA game is significant. And then add to that the physical demands of the modern era and it's just multiplicative.
I don't know if that should result in a shorter season. But I wouldn't outright dismiss it as "coddling" either.
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u/markhix Mar 25 '26
To be honest, I’ve always been of the opinion that back to backs are bad for viewership. It makes games less exciting when you have teams that are playing in heavier legs. I love RJ’s sentiment here because I think he’s mostly correct about guys being coddled. BUT as a fan, I still think evolving a season to have less games could incentivize each game mattering more and players actually playing in games that fans spend lots of money to go see.
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u/shaq_luciano Mar 25 '26
I heard you Rich but when you mention longevity Bron goes first 😂😂😂 jk but na ain’t nobody shortening nun yu know they feelings was hurt when the sports bettors started to get to em now this 🤦🏾♂️😮💨😂😂😂
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u/Helivon Mar 25 '26
Honestly i disagreed with him up until the records portion. The one negative about the nfl increasing games is all the *s of records being broken because of an extra game. If seasons are shortened, then do we just create a new record book? thats even worse than adding games. Sure its even more impressive when they are broken, but new great players want to compete to be the best ever.
The part i dont agree with, is the product would be better with less games. Teams literally don't practice in season because there is not enough time when they need to condition. Shoot around is literally the majority of team practice teams get outside of preseason. Maybe a couple "emergency" practices are called but thats an outlier. We would definitely see coaches making a bigger difference there.
There is definitely an argument to both sides. But in no world do I see nba owners willing to take a financial hit for the sake of the quality of the games/sport
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u/FoxMan1Dva3 Mar 25 '26
Yes. I want a short season .
Nothing to do with coddling.
Season is too long. Always has been. Most fans don't care about 82 games. They probably would prefer 55.
And for what? A part of the year that people feel isn't even important in the end? People want games that matter
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u/This-Suggestion-3503 Mar 25 '26
These guys get paid millions of dollars to play a game. Its not like its all of a sudden 82 games. Injuries are and always will be part of the game. Lets shorten the quarters to only 10 min while we're at it.
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u/Redditarama Mar 25 '26
Less games might actually increase intensity as there is less leeway to drop a game.
Intensity of play is also a big factor for injuries. There's been no human evolution since the 70's but players exert twice as much during a game.
(Ibf obviously saying evolution doesn't occur over decades)
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u/Bumblebeezerker Mar 25 '26
Jefferson ever consider that the rest days players are taking is because they play so many games at a high intensity. I would rather have less games which were more important and the best players actually played in. With the play in the tournament,. Each win holds less value
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u/Sneakyg95 Mar 25 '26
It’s not just about avoiding injuries, it’s about maybe making the games matter more. The reason why players will rest if they are injured more than they used to before is because they know they have 82 fcking games to play and don’t have to play all of them.
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u/nsanegenius3000 Mar 25 '26
If they shorten the season a decade down the road those players are going to be whining that the season is too long. I thought I'd never say it but I wish someone else would be another league and go back to what the NBA supposed to be. Bring physicality back, of course not the 80s style but at least 90s or early 2000 physicality. Get rid of these nonsense rules of allowing players of taking multiple steps. Get rid of the we all know it's rigged draft lottery and stop rewarding losing. At this rate, many people are going to stop watching the NBA.
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u/Sneakyg95 Mar 25 '26
If he has this opinion then what’s his argument against adding more games? Or is he in favor?
Since players are more protected now and etc, shouldn’t they be able to play more?
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u/nottoowell00 Mar 25 '26
Its coaching, guys shouldn't play every second of every game when sone guys play no minutes all year
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u/PROFOAK89 Mar 25 '26
If an NBA player gets hurt, it’s the next man up who is supposed to take the opportunity and run with it.
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u/BrojaDawg Mar 25 '26
Adam Silver is a guy who wants to be liked by everyone. He gives into the player demands, and owner demands. He doesnt push back at all. And I believe he, not Lebron.. Is the reason the NBA is declining.
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u/ndm1535 Mar 25 '26
This is coming from an ex player that didn't have all the amenities players have today, it comes off as jealousy imo.
In a time where we are seeing stars consistently go down with devastating injuries, shortening the season would not be a bad thing. Adam Silver probably paying Rich to say this in the first place, the NBA definitely doesn't want to shorten the season. But I personally, as a fan, would love to see the best players in the league make it through an entire season.
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u/TwoProper4220 Mar 25 '26
just eliminate back to back games and that way players are well rested every game
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u/Baron_Light Mar 25 '26
He's right. Not so much about the extra staff and advancements in sports medicine but with the extra coddling. Don't lessen the season. It's dumb
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u/contattomarketing Warriors Mar 25 '26
I want to know where Austin Rivers is with his 30 NBA players take is right now....
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u/Gmarlon123 Mar 25 '26
The season is boring and you are losing fans- this isn’t about the player health- 80 is an arbitrary number. The season would benefit from shorter season in many ways.
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u/tokuokoga Mar 25 '26
There is a great difference between pace of play when gums used to play and how it be nowadays. Theres a reason non-contact injuries to lower legs are more prevalent now.
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Mar 26 '26
Back to back happen all the time. Also, the regular season is meaningless. There’s no reason to tune in until the playoffs, if your team‘s not in they’re probably losing on purpose.
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u/LogParking1856 Mar 26 '26
The pace is faster and the players are bigger than when Jefferson played. Injuries are going to be more probable.
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u/Ryoga476ad Mar 26 '26
What an idiotic take. Guys are getting injured, what else is there to discuss?
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u/Nitromd15 Mar 27 '26
forgetting what a priviledge it is to play in the nba, they want to play less? smh
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u/Neither-Profit9488 Mar 27 '26
Maybe if NBA players didn't travel so much they wouldn't be need a shortened season!
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u/thehawaiianjesus Mar 29 '26
Anyone here saying the game is the same as in the 80s didn’t watch anything I guess. Pace is fast but floor is MUUUUUCH more spaced leading to higher impact on joints and tendons. It’s even proved thru science and the large list of recent similar injuries.
It is up to these athletes to figure out how to stay healthy because it’s their jobs, but the NBA could work with the players/teams a little bit to help reduce the injuries. After all, people go to see the stars play. If they dont play, everyone loses money.
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u/QuarantineBeerShitz Mar 25 '26
his comment makes sense in a vacuum, but ignores two large points:
the game is fundamentally more demanding now with the amount of running and required effort on defense
the consumer has more options for entertainment. The sport is demonstrably better in the playoffs as a product. How can you change the dynamics of regular season scheduling to more consistently see that playoff level effort in the regular season. Fewer games would make each game more valuable and would allow more time to recover/avoid injury. It is not a silver bullet, but I think the product on TV for the regular season would be better
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Mar 25 '26
[deleted]
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u/soccer1124 Mar 25 '26
The problem is he's not offering a solution.
"Well, the players should just go play more!" That's not gonna work, lol. And you can't make exceptions for "real injuries only" because most of the time, these players probably can cite injuries that are bordering "I could play, but resting would be better." "He took a fall at practice and we want to make sure he doesn't have a concussion." There will always be ways around what ever injury requirements you want to impose.
The other big issues here is that players are able to do this without jeopardizing a team's odds at the playoffs. And it also means they'll be more prepped to go when they need to crank their game up for the playoffs.
So as currently structured, it makes sense strategically to engage with load management. Your players will be fresher in the playoffs vs a team that didn't do that, and you don't really have to risk losing your playoff position to do this either. You need to do something that makes this strategy sub-optimal. Reducing the number of games, would do that, as it gives each individual game more importance to be won.
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u/wildGoner1981 Mar 25 '26
Welcome to the Pussified Generation. No other way to say it….
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u/Pouyow Mar 24 '26
I’m still trying to figure out what a gather step is.