Are huge changes on the way for the NBA?
League Commissioner Adam Silver appeared on The Dan Patrick Show on Wednesday and made a big reveal: NBA leadership has discussed changing the length of games from 12-minute quarters to 10-minute quarters.
This means that NBA games in the future could be 40 minutes long instead of the traditional 48 minutes.
While Silver in no way insinuated that there is an active push to make this change soon, he admitted that he’s a fan of the 40-minute framework and offered some fascinating quotes as to why in his conversation with Patrick.
Here’s the full extent of what Silver said regarding 10-minute quarters:
“I am a fan of four, 10-minute quarters,” Silver said.
“I’m not sure that many others are … 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 modern television habits. People in arenas aren’t asking us to shorten the game, but … as a television program, Olympic basketball is two hours, college basketball is 40 minutes.”
“The NBA is the only (basketball) league that plays 48 minutes. … It’s such a dramatic change to the game … something like that would have to be talked more about over time.”
Silver also brought up the recent changes that Major League Baseball implemented regarding the pitch clock as an example of a successful innovation in a traditional sport.
“I’m a baseball fan, and I think some of those changes have really increased sort of the engagement … the entertainment value of the game, and so I’m paying a lot of attention to that. And in fact, I’ve used the pitch clock … in meetings at the NBA to say … we shouldn’t be afraid to look at changes.”
Ultimately, Silver advocating for 10-minute quarters appears to stem mostly from his desire to see pro basketball leagues (NBA included) establish a uniform set of rules across the globe.
“Because this game is so global, one of the things we’d like to see over time is creating a more consistent set of rules globally around the game,” Silver told Patrick.
Most interestingly, Silver also noted that 10-minute quarters could help combat the NBA’s load management issue.
“Incidentally, if you went to a 40-minute game — with the issues around load management and resting — it would be the equivalent of … taking like 15 games off the season.”
“I don’t think most fans would be disappointed if it was a two-hour presentation instead of … two hours and 15 (minutes).”
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