Should the NBA seriously consider shortening its regular season and allowing teams to play less than 82 games in the months leading up to the NBA Playoffs? It's a question that everyone seems to have an opinion on right now. In the last few days, both LeBron James and Dirk Nowitzki have come out and said that they don't think the NBA should stick with its regular 82-game schedule. They want to see that number reduced to allow players to get more rest between games.
But Michael Jordan doesn't agree. During a recent interview with ESPN, he revealed that he's not in favor of shortening the NBA's 82-game regular season. And he said that he's not simply saying that because he's an owner now who stands to lose money if the league ultimately decides to play less regular season games.
"I love both of those guys [James and Nowitzki], but as an owner who played the game, I loved playing," the Hornets owner said. "If I wasn't playing 82 games, I still would've been playing somewhere else because that's the love for the game I had. As a player, I never thought 82 games was an issue. But if that's what they want to do, we as owners and players can evaluate it and talk about it. But we'd make less money as partners. Are they ready to give up money to play fewer games? That's the question, because you can't make the same amount of money playing fewer games."
MJ also said that he's not in favor of the league's idea to reduce games to 44 minutes long instead of 48 minutes long.
"I would never shorten the game by four minutes, unless guys were having physical issues," he said, before explaining why shorter seasons and games don't make sense to him. "It's not like football. We don't really have to worry about concussions and some of the physical damage that football players deal with after they retire. I can understand football players wanting to play fewer games from a physical standpoint. But basketball's not the same."
Nothing that Jordan said here surprises us. As we said, he's an owner now, not a player, so of course he wants an 82-game regular season. Hell, if other owners started talking about having a 182-game regular season, he'd probably think that was a good idea. But James and Nowitzki definitely aren't the only two NBA players who feel like reducing the 82-game regular season schedule is a good idea. So it'll be interesting to see if the idea of actually doing it ever gets off the ground.
[via ESPN]
