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"Less games is less concessions and less tickets and all that, but at the end of the day, we want to protect the prize, and the prize is the players," James said. "If guys are being injured because there's so many games, we can't promote it at a high level."
LOL; I'm sure Lebron had it figured out before I did, but this is something that I've been harping on for quite some time. The human body needs about 2 days to recover from an intense workout, which is what an NBA game is. Distance runners do only 2 or 3 intense workouts per week for this reason. This allows recovery and optimizes their fitness. I don't know much about weight lifting, but I would guess they have a similar approach. NBA players play about 3.5 games per week during the regular season, which is a recipe for overtraining effect and resultant illness and injury.
As an NBA fan, I would much rather have fewer games and have the great players that I love to watch on the floor, as opposed to sitting on the bench in suit and tie. But LBJ puts his finger on the simple reason that the NBA will never do it: money. In essence, the NBA is giving us a subpar product so that they can rake in more money. One of these days I will probably just quit watching this league.
Never thought I would hear a NBA star complaining that it's too many games. They are paid big bucks to stay in good shape so that they can play a 82 game season so no one wants to hear this nonsense.
He's right, the season is too long and IMO as a result we've had an awful lot of NBA playoffs marred by injuries over the last 20 years.
I'd rather have a 70 game season and then a playoffs without Kobe hurt or the Spurs banged up (Notice how many championships they have with no repeats?) and so forth.
The best players aren't playing 82 but more like 90-100 each season.
He's right, the season is too long and IMO as a result we've had an awful lot of NBA playoffs marred by injuries over the last 20 years.
I'd rather have a 70 game season and then a playoffs without Kobe hurt or the Spurs banged up (Notice how many championships they have with no repeats?) and so forth.
The best players aren't playing 82 but more like 90-100 each season.
It won't happen. The overwhelming majority of NBA players do not want to take a pay cut. The NBA is fine just the way it is.
It won't happen. The overwhelming majority of NBA players do not want to take a pay cut. The NBA is fine just the way it is.
I'd prefer it was a little shorter but then again if I'm going to dream I might as well ask to win the lottery.
You are absolutely correct in your points and the entire discussion is as likely as a conversation wondering if Lebron will quit midseason to become a professional yodeler.
Last I checked the avg. NBA salary is $5 million. A cut from 82 to 70 games translates proportionately to $4.2 million. I bet that a lot of players would accept that cut in exchange for not having to abuse their bodies so much.
The owners and league are another matter. We're hearing players like Lebron and Dirk speak out about it, but I don't hear anything from the league nor the owners.
Since professional sports (big four) have become so specialized from youth on up and to virtual year round training, they should compress the training camps and spread the games out a little bit and reduce the regular seasons just a bit. If I were commissioner of all sports I would go to the following
NBA 78 game schedule 3 weeks training camp championships end mid June
MLB 156 game schedule pitchers and catchers report 4 weeks before season 3 weeks all others
NFL 18 games regular season; preseason 2 games (10th through 17th week four teams get bye week, all teams play week 18th -20th week
NHL 78 games and less training camp
Since they all are "Union" I would ban agents for negotiating salary and put them on a formula that provides them base salary commensurate with current base salaries in each respective sport, and bonus based upon a formula for 'production' (however best determined) multiplied by number of games played.
Agents would only be for ancillary income outside of the games themselves (endorsements, advertising et al) the percentage of realized profit - if you can even really get the information - [read Larceny Games (Brian Tuohy), How Organized Crime Influences Professional Football (Dan Moldea) etc...and other sports expose books] supposed to go to players should have higher percentage dedicated to their pension and 'health' fund due to the sacrifice to physical well being.
NBA and NHL (has the exact same number of games) are fine.
If anything, shorten the playoffs...
Shortening the playoffs would have a few impacts.
1) Less revenue when viership is it's highest. So cutting out 1 playoff game would be more economically impactfull than getting rid of multiple regular season games.
2) It introduces more variability (upsets) which can also be bad for ratings.
Frankly, I think it would make things more exciting and give fans of more marginal teams hope for upsets which rarely rarely ever happen anymore and certainly not big upsets.
However, it's not going to happen.
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. They are paid big bucks to stay in good shape so that they can play a 82 game season so no one wants to hear this nonsense.
