LeBron James doesn’t believe shorter games will reduce injuries and fatigue throughout the NBA. The Cleveland Cavaliers star said the only thing that will help is cutting the number of games from the league’s 82-game regular season.
LeBron James wants the NBA to cut games, not minutes
The four-time MVP thinks a 66-game schedule without back-to-backs would be ideal.
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Ricky O'Donnell has covered basketball at all levels for more than a decade at SB Nation. He’s currently the Associate Director of Programming.
LeBron James said he wants the NBA to shorten the number of games, not the number of minutes in the game.
— Dave McMenamin (@mcten) October 15, 2014 LeBron: "The minutes doesn’t mean anything. We can play 50-minute games if we had to. It’s just the games."
— Dave McMenamin (@mcten) October 15, 2014 James said he’s in favor of the 66-game schedule the league played in its lockout-shortened season in 2012, only without the back-to-backs.
The NBA will experiment with a 44-minute game when the Boston Celtics and Brooklyn Nets play in the preseason on Sunday. The number of injuries to star players the last few seasons has been received plenty of attention, and the trend has continued through the offseason and into the preseason. Kevin Durant is the latest example, as the reigning MVP is set to miss 6-8 weeks with a foot injury.
Celtics star Rajon Rondo has also suffered an injury this preseason, though the broken hand that will keep him out six weeks allegedly happened off the court. Pacers star Paul George suffered the most gruesome injury of all during a Team USA exhibition game before the 2014 FIBA World Cup, one that’s set to sideline him the entire season.
James has played 75 games or more (lockout season excluded) in every year since entering the league in 2003.
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