Mavs' Nowitzki wants 82-game schedule shortened
Forget about shaving minutes off games, Dallas Mavericks star Dirk Nowitzki wants the length of the regular season trimmed down.
Nowitzki is not in favor of the NBA's upcoming experiment to play a 44-minute game, which will take place Sunday during a preseason contest between the Brooklyn Nets and Boston Celtics. But he would like to see the 82-game schedule significantly reduced.
"I think you don't need 82 games to determine the best eight in each conference," Nowitzki said Wednesday, according to ESPN Dallas's Tim MacMahon. "That could be done a lot quicker, but I always understand that it's about money, and every missed game means missed money for both parties, for the league, for the owners, for the players. I understand all that, and that's why I don't think it's going to change any time soon."
The Mavericks' power forward believes a schedule consisting of 60-something contests is optimal and that cutting back, if not abolishing, games in consecutive days would be better for everyone – fans included.
"Honestly, I never was a big fan of back-to-backs even when I was 20 years old," the 36-year-old said. "I think that you should never have to play at the highest level there is two consecutive nights and flying in between. You obviously make it work. We have the best athletes in the world, we feel, but I think it hurts the product some. Last year, some teams get here for the fourth game in five nights and we've been sitting here on rest and just blow them out."
The 16-year veteran wasn't the first in the league to voice his opinion on the subject.
Miami Heat coach Erik Spoelstra spoke up earlier in the week and expressed similar concerns.
"I think everybody probably agrees there's too many games in a short period of time," Spoelstra said, according to ESPN.
Nowitzki has one more final piece of advice for the NBA: reduce the amount of timeouts at the end of games.
"It's such a fun, fast game," Nowitzki said. "Then there's one action and they score, OK, there's a timeout and you sit for two minutes. There's another action, they score, tie it up (and another timeout is called).
"There's no other sport where it's interrupted so much at the end. That's something that I would look at. Both teams are like, 'They have another timeout? Are you kidding me?' That's a little much, but other than that, I think the game's great."