Thursday 16 October 2014
NBA planning exhibition game of 44 minutes
Cleveland Cavaliers' LeBron James & Dallas Mavericks' Dirk Nowitzki spoke out ahead of this week's 44-minute exhibition match that a shorter league season would be a boon for the players.
They said that its the number of games which takes a toll on a player's body but not the number of minutes.
"Less games is less concessions and less tickets and all that, but at the end of the day we want to protect the prize, and the prize is the players," James said on Wednesday. "If guys are being injured because there's so many games, we can't promote it at a high level."
Both the players are willing to take less money if league is shortened.
Paul George, the star player from Indiana Pacers will miss the season due to a broken leg while 5-time NBA scoring champion Kevin Durant (Oklahoma City Thunder) is expected to be out for at least 2 months with a broken foot.
James said that it does not matter if a player plays for 22 minutes or 40, but the frequency of games such as 3 games in 3 nights takes its toll on players. James recommends the league be of 66 games spreag through the 6-months period.
Dirk Nowitzki was also in favour of "60-odd" games being enough to decide the best 8 in each conference instead of the traditional 82.
