LeBron agrees with Nowitzki, wants season shortened: '82 games are a lot'

It appears more and more players are in favor of a shorter NBA schedule. The league's biggest star can be added to that list. 

LeBron James agrees with Dallas Mavericks forward Dirk Nowitzki (see stack below) that cutting down the schedule would be a far better measure in reducing injuries than shortening the length of each contest. 

"It's not the minutes, it's the games," James said Wednesday, according to Chris Haynes of the Cleveland Plain Dealer. "The minutes don't mean anything. We can play 50-minute games if we had to. It's the games that I think we all as players think is too many games in our season. 82 games are a lot. But It's not the minutes, taking away minutes from the game is not going to shorten the game at all.

"Once you go out and play on the floor, it doesn't matter if you're playing 22 minutes, like I'm playing tonight, or you play 40 minutes. Once you play, it takes a toll on your body. So it's not less minutes, it's games."

James didn't offer any specifics as to what he believes the schedule should be reduced to, but said players will sit down with the league to address it when the time is right. 

The four-time MVP said he's simply open to anything that will help keep players on the court more often. When the season starts at the end of the month, a pair of the game's biggest superstars in Kevin Durant (foot) and Paul George (leg) will be watching from the sidelines.

"We have to continue to promote the game and if guys are being injured because there are so many games, then we can't promote it at a high level," he said. "We got two of our top guys in our league out right now. I'm not saying it's because of the games, but anything will help."