Jeff Van Gundy is as interested as any NBA fan in seeing whether the league’s 44-minute test-game Sunday in Brooklyn is going to have the desired effect by enhancing the flow of play in the final minutes.
“I agree with the sentiment,’’ the former Knicks coach told me this week. “It’s certainly worthwhile to ponder this issue, especially in this country of shortened attention spans. You never want to become boring. So something needs to be done.’’
The NBA is keenly aware of that, so when the Nets host the Celtics in a pre-season game that would ordinarily provide almost no compelling storyline, they’re going to shorten every quarter by one minute.
But the biggest change will be to eliminate one of three mandatory timeouts in the fourth quarter that have slowly morphed into the league’s double-edged sword.
On the plus side, timeouts mean more TV commercials and billions of dollars in revenue for the league, which recently signed a new nine-year TV contract for a record $2.66 billion per season.
On the minus side, numerous timeouts down the stretch of playoff games, in particular, also mean bringing games to a screeching halt, making them culprits, along with TV replays and the customary inordinate number of fouls. The last two minutes of games can last a lifetime.
“When you’re coaching, you really don’t notice it as much,’’ Van Gundy said. “But when you watch it on TV, it is just beyond comprehension.’’
Van Gundy, who will again provide entertaining and expert analysis this season for ABC/ESPN, has some solutions for picking up the pace at the end of games. He is in favor of doing away with TV replay, almost entirely. He’s also for outlawing the practice of fouling to extend games, and also favors allowing teams to call timeouts only to advance the ball, but otherwise making them obsolete for long stoppages by banning teams from huddling up.
“NHL games in the last two minutes never stop, other than for an icing call,’’ he said. “You don’t see them replaying stuff. That’s what we need to do. I know people are saying, 'Well, we can’t cut a timeout, because it’s going to cost us money.’ But you know what? Look at this next TV contract we have and look how it’s going to make everybody plenty of money. How about we go with the concept of giving back to the fan? By cutting a timeout, we’ll be doing that and we would also be helping to keep the flow of the game going.’’
It’s all about doing that, even though the fallout from the league’s announcement to try the 44-minute game quickly turned in the usual argument: How the NBA has to shorten its regular season, which will start in less than two weeks and runs through April 15.
LeBron James, whose voice carries more weight than any other player, is in favor of playing fewer games to help preserve players.
"It's not the minutes, it's the games," he told reporters before the Cavs’ victory over the Pacers on Wednesday. "The minutes don't mean anything. We all as players think it's too many games. In our season, 82 games is a lot.''
But 82 was never too many for Wilt Chamberlain, Bill Russell, Larry Bird, Magic Johnson or Michael Jordan, just to name a few immortals who came before James. The NBA has used its 82-game schedule since 1967-68 and there’s a lot of important history tied to that number.
“As a player, I never thought 82 games was an issue,’’ Jordan, the Charlotte owner, told ESPN.com. “But if that's what they want to do (shorten the season), we as owners and players can evaluate it and talk about it. But we'd make less money as partners. Are they ready to give up money to play fewer games? That's the question, because you can't make the same amount of money playing fewer games.''
On this debate, we’ll side with Jordan. There’s nothing wrong with playing 82 games. It’s just the interminable endings that we can do without.
Longtime New York columnist Mitch Lawrence continues to write about pro basketball, as he’s done for the last 21 years. His columns for NBCNewYork.com on the Knicks, Brooklyn Nets and the NBA, along with other major sports, will appear twice weekly. Follow him on Twitter.
