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Euroleague, FIBA, NCAA, and WNBA video games are all 40 minutes lengthy. Why is the NBA 48 minutes?
Adam Silver posed that query throughout an interview, and the downstream ramifications are fascinating. Actually, 10-minute quarters would take advantage of vital impression. The NBA might get near its desired two-hour broadcast window, and as somebody always battling to remain up-to-date on 30 completely different groups, I’d personally welcome a faster recreation. Maybe the lowered minutes’ load would even scale back famous person accidents, arguably the gravest risk to league recognition.
However there are many subtler knock-on results. Most NBA data would develop into unobtainable (though the NBA has by no means been fairly as beholden to data because the MLB, the chase nonetheless creates pleasure!). Moreover, followers intrinsically perceive what “good” per-game stats are, constructed upon a long time of publicity and expertise. They’d have to recalibrate their expectations, which can trigger some friction.
Maybe most worryingly, nevertheless, is what would occur to gamers and rosters. If starters usually play 30-35 minutes per recreation in the present day, they seemingly wouldn’t see a lot of a discount in taking part in time. Nevertheless, reserves averaging 18 minutes per recreation might see their minutes lower by 30 % or extra, which might replicate of their corresponding paychecks. Backups matter much less in the event that they play much less, and if starters play extra, there can be much less variance, and fewer night-to-night parity.
Theoretically, shorter video games might even result in smaller rosters general – 10 energetic gamers as an alternative of 12, for instance, very conveniently saving the house owners a boatload of cash.
Shortening video games would resolve one drawback however introduce many extra.
For extra from Mike Shearer, take a look at his irreverent weblog Basketball Poetry, the place he deep-dives the NBA a number of occasions per week.