Joe Mazzulla doesn’t care about cutting NBA quarters to 10 minutes, but Adam Silver is ‘a fan’ of the idea
The commissioner said he's looking into the idea of shortening the game. Other coaches got fired up about it.
Joe Mazzulla delivered a succinct response with little emotion on his face when asked about the possibility of the NBA shortening quarters from 12 minutes to 10.
“I don’t care,” Mazzulla said. “Whatever you’ve got to do. Just play the game.”
Mazzulla may not care about the concept, but league commissioner Adam Sliver said he is considering it during a recent appearance on The Dan Patrick Show.
Patrick asked Silver to share the “wildest thing” the league is considering in terms of tweaking the sport, using the NFL’s decision to alter kickoffs as an example of what he was looking for.
Silver floated two concepts: Giving 3-point shooters who are fouled two free-throws instead of three, and shortening the game. With the league’s television ratings down, Silver said a shorter product may be more enticing for fans.
“Something else that I’m a fan of, and I’m probably in the minority, is as we get more involved in global basketball, the NBA is the only league that plays 48 minutes,” Silver said. “I am a fan of four, 10-minute quarters. I’m not sure that many others are.”
“I mean, putting aside what it means for records and things like that, I think that a two-hour format for a game is more consistent with sort of modern television habits. People in arenas aren’t asking us to shorten the game, but I think as a television program being two hours – Olympic basketball is two hours, college basketball of course is 40 minutes.”
In 2023, Major League Baseball implemented a pitch clock that has resulted in shorter games. Silver said he is a fan of how that played out in terms of how it changed the way fans engage with the sport. If a sport as locked into tradition as baseball can make such a change, the NBA shouldn’t be afraid to take a look at it either, Silver said.
But, such a move would represent a “dramatic” change to the game. Silver said it would require more discussion over time if it were to ever happen. In general, shortening the games would make it harder for players to reach past records.
“I’m probably more traditional so I’d hate to see that,” Knicks coach Tom Thibodeau said. “That’s just a personal [opinion]. I haven’t really thought about it just because of the records and things of that nature. I think we have a great game. I think what people want to see is competition.”
Nuggets coach Michael Malone also said he is strongly opposed to the idea.
“I give the league credit, because they’re always trying to find ways to keep the fans engaged,” he said. “But I hope we don’t go to 10-minute quarters. I hope we don’t put in a 4-point line. I hope we don’t become Barnum & Bailey, or do whatever we have to do to keep viewership. Because there’s a greatness and a history to this game, and a purity to this game that I hope we can find a way to stay true to.”
It would have implications for other aspects of the game, such as load management, Bulls coach Billy Donovan said before Chicago lost to the Celtics at TD Garden on Wednesday.
Eight fewer minutes per game would take 656 minutes per season off the schedule, which would be the equivalent of 13.6 48-minute games. The NBA has had issues in recent years with certain star players having a hard time staying on the floor consistently. Fewer minutes could be a way to get players more rest without taking games off the schedule.
“Part of me would think that what’s happened is that the pace of play has gotten so fast, there’s so many games and I think you look at players’ durability being available,” Donovan said. “There’s a lot on these guys physically in today’s day and age that they probably were not dealing with a period of time ago.”
“I think every year, the game has gotten faster, and faster, and more spread out and there’s way more possessions now than there was,” he added. “Our guys in the medical – I’m sure it’s just like this with every team, they’re keeping track of these guys sprint metrics and the sprint numbers on some of these guys are incredible, these guys who are playing 32 to 36 minutes. It’s a lot. In the NBA, you play back to backs, you play four in seven. There’s a lot of density in the schedule there. It probably makes it hard.”
The NBA’s TV viewership is fine, but it pales in comparison to its social media following, Silver said, citing a viral video of San Antonio’s Victor Wembanyama playing chess in New York City that was watched by hundreds of millions of people.
The commissioner’s job, Silver said, is to get more basketball lovers to watch the NBA and watch it longer. The league is looking into a range of topics, from whether teams are shooting too many threes to how long the games are as it continues to position itself for the future, he said.
“Day in and day out, and I have all the various streaming services, and I have all different programming available to me,” Silver said. “I don’t think it’s an accident that people are increasingly gravitating to premium live sports. Not just basketball, but obviously football, hockey, baseball, etc. WNBA now.”
“I think it’s because people crave something that’s live, something that’s unscripted, something that can be entertaining as well,” he added. “I think that basketball and the NBA can be all those things, but our job has become that much harder because we are competing against so many different forms of entertainment. It’s podcasts, and social media, and unlimited numbers of channels and programming. So, we have to up our game too to make sure that we are finding programming and ways to engage viewers and teach people about the game.”
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