Griffin says 66 games is ideal length for NBA season
It's a common refrain among players not only in the NBA, but MLB and the NHL, as well: the season is too long.
An 82-game campaign has been the standard in the NBA since 1967, although when it began there were only 12 teams in the league. Today, 30 squads pack 82 coast-to-coast contests into less than six months. While the league has taken steps to reduce back-to-backs and four-games-in-five-nights debacles, Blake Griffin thinks the schedule should be reduced by 16 games.
"Sixty-six, spread over the same amount of time," the Los Angeles Clippers superstar said when asked his ideal season length, CBS Sports' Ken Berger reports. "Fatigue and injuries ... if you have less games, less back-to-backs, the product's better. The fans will appreciate it more. You see those college guys playing so hard, but they play 36 games in the same amount of time we play 82 almost. I just think it would be a better product."
Griffin's a little off on his statement that NCAAers play their schedule in the same time frame - the college regular season usually lasts less than four months before conference tournaments begin.
Regardless of how widely held the rest of Griffin's views are, however, owners aren't in the business of erasing 16 revenue portals. Labor unions in the four major sports leagues are aware of this and generally pick their battles, as exemplified by the NBPA's push for a less intense schedule as opposed to a shortened one. They also recently hired their own sports science guru to monitor players' health.
That's not to say all players agree with Griffin. Denver Nuggets power forward Kenneth Faried is cool with 82 games, saying that those who came before him didn't complain.
"I think 82 is the proper length," Faried said. "(Michael) Jordan played 82. They played more preseason games, so they cut the preseason games and training camp down, which is good for us ... these guys before us were playing 20-plus years and they were playing 82 and still being All-Stars."