Adam Silver Hints At Less Games, Midseason Tournament

If it wasn’t for the Covid-19 pandemic, perhaps Adam Silver would have his midseason cup style tournament by now.

It’s a drum the NBA Commissioner has been beating consistently for a number of years now. He brought it up again at his news conference on Wednesday.

Adam Silver was making a wider point about players in the NBA not playing full seasons due to injury and other issues. This season we’ve seen Ben Simmons and Kyrie Irving sit out for various reasons. 

As well as that, injuries are hitting the best players. Just look at how injuries have impacted the Lakers this year. Adam Silver said reducing the number of regular season games should be considered. 

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“Part of the issue is injuries,” said Silver. 

“One of the things we have focused on at the league office and we’re spending — we had begun to spend a lot of time on pre-pandemic — are there things we can do in terms of sharing information, resources around the league to improve best practices, rehabilitation?

“The other way we can get at it, in terms of player participation, is creating other incentives. The play-in tournament, I thought, was a beginning of creating renewed incentives for teams to remain competitive and be fighting for playoff position. It might be through in-season tournaments and changes in format where we can get at it.”

Read: Lakers Out Of Postseason Qualification After Suns Defeat

“I also have said in the past, if we have too many games, that’s something we should look at as well,” Silver said. 

“It’s something, as we sit down and we’re looking at new media deals and looking at a new collective bargaining agreement, we will be studying. There wasn’t any banging of the table or anything like that. From my discussions with players, they recognize it’s an issue, too. The style of the game has changed in terms of the impact on their bodies. I think we’ve got to constantly assess and look at a marketplace going forward and say, what’s the best way to present our product and over how long a season?”