Would less NBA games make the overall product better?
LeBron James and Dirk Nowitzki think so. According to Dave McMenamin, both men agree that the length of the games aren’t the problem.
It’s the length of the season that taking a toll.
“No. It’s not the minutes, it’s the games,” James said. “The minutes doesn’t mean anything. We can play 50-minute games if we had to. It’s just the games. We all as players think it’s too many games. In our season, 82 games is a lot. But it’s not the minutes. Taking away minutes from the game is not going to shorten the game at all.
“Once you go out and play on the floor, it don’t matter if you play 22 minutes — like I may be playing tonight — or you’re playing 40 minutes,” James added. “Once you play, it takes a toll on your body. So it’s not lessening the minutes, I think it’s the games.”
Nowitzki and James were referring to points made by Miami Heat coach Erik Spoelstra, who’s in favor of taking out some of the back-to-back games played around the league.
“I think if there’s some way to find a way to cut out some of the back-to-backs so there aren’t 20-plus of them, I think that’s the bigger issue, not shaving off four minutes in a particular game,” Spoelstra said. “But I’m open to seeing what happens with that.
“I think everybody probably agrees there’s too many games in a short period of time.”