Earlier this week, NBA commissioner Adam Silver addressed reporters at a information convention following the league’s Board of Governors conferences. He touched on a lot of subjects, however maybe essentially the most notable was the “development of star gamers not collaborating in a full complement of video games.”
“I am not standing right here saying I’ve a fantastic answer,” Silver mentioned. “A part of the difficulty is accidents. One of many issues we’ve targeted on on the league workplace and we’re spending — we had begun to spend so much of time on pre-pandemic — are there issues we are able to do by way of sharing data, assets across the league to enhance greatest practices, rehabilitation, et cetera?
“The opposite method we are able to get at it, by way of participant participation, is creating different incentives,” Silver continued. “I imply, it could be — the play-in event I assumed was a starting of making renewed incentives for groups to stay aggressive and be preventing for playoff place. It might be by in-season tournaments and adjustments in format the place we are able to get at it.”
Determining a stability between retaining gamers wholesome and placing the very best product on the ground on a night-to-night foundation has been one of many principal focuses for Silver throughout his tenure. This isn’t the primary time he has introduced up the subject, and it’ll not be the final.
On Saturday, Golden State Warriors coach Steve Kerr weighed in and echoed a suggestion that many followers and media members have thrown out: shorten the season.
“To me what makes essentially the most sense is chopping again to possibly a 72 sport schedule,” Kerr mentioned. “Take 10 video games off and get extra time to relaxation in between video games. I feel you will get groups to play their guys extra typically.”
Lowering the variety of video games would assist preserve gamers wholesome, make every sport extra significant and aggressive and reduce the chance of gamers sitting out. The plain counter to the thought, nevertheless, is that homeowners will not be going to need to eliminate video games and residential dates for his or her arenas, nor would anybody need to take a pay minimize.
To that time it is price noting that Silver himself touched on the likelihood and didn’t utterly rule it out.
“I even have mentioned up to now, if we’ve too many video games, that is one thing we must always take a look at as nicely,” Silver mentioned. “It is one thing, as we sit down and we’re taking a look at new media offers and taking a look at a brand new collective bargaining settlement, we shall be finding out.”
Once more, the potential financial points created by chopping again on some video games could possibly be an actual sticking level. But when coaches are on board and the commissioner needs to have a dialog, it seems to be a risk and is one thing to regulate down the highway.
