Speaking this week from London, NBA commissioner Adam Silver said that the league is studying the end of NBA games with an eye toward speeding them up, writes Tom Hamilton of ESPN.com. The NBA, which will review the issue at the end of the season, wants to retain younger fans who “have increasingly short attention spans,” per Silver.
“It’s something that I know all of sports are looking at right now, and that is the format of the game and the length of time it takes to play the game,” Silver said. “When the last few minutes of the game take an extraordinary amount of time, sometimes it’s incredibly interesting for fans, other times it’s not. … We are going to take a fresh look at the format, specifically in the last two minutes.”
While Siver didn’t go into detail about what changes the NBA’s competition committee might consider, reducing the number of timeouts a team can use in a game – or at least in the final two minutes of a game – would be one way to go. The final minute or two of an NBA contest can also be slowed down significantly if one team is trailing by a few points and commits several intentional fouls in an effort to extend the game and make up ground.
“It’s something that we track very closely,” Silver said. “In the league office we time out every game, we know exactly how much time each possession takes and, again, we can also look at minute-by-minute ratings, so we know at what point fans are potentially tuning out as well.”
What do you think? Does the NBA need to seriously consider making changes related to timeouts, intentional fouls, or another aspect of the game to speed up the final few minutes? Or are things fine the way the are?
Jump into the comments section below to weigh in with your thoughts.
I hate how baseball and basketball are trying to change the way the game is played to appease the fickle fan. I’m a millennial myself and if you can’t enjoy the strategy aspects of a game then don’t watch!!!!! Stop trying to speed up basketball and baseball because people can’t concentrate…
While I agree on basketball. There is no strategy in baseball to pitchers dancing around on the mound for 30 seconds in between pitches or batters having 30 second choreographed dance routines after every swing. It’s just annoying.
Take the “officials’ timeout” (obligatory commercial break) out of the game. Tedious. Breaks any kind of flow.
Ok now I agree on that…those are just commercial excuses. No value in the game
Yeah just cut to less commercial breaks. If they stayed on the game, less people would leave.
Less commercialization of the sport: who would enjoy that?
How about instead of cutting to commercials, they interview several players for 30 seconds each about their shoes, car, or other product they most enjoy? They would keep the focus on the court and the fans in the stands would get something to witness and enjoy.
20 Second Shot Clock
Basketball has gotten pretty slow in the last 10 years. More interruptions. More fouls and violations are called. More commercials. All of that is a big part of why I barely watch anymore.
So I definitely hope the NBA addresses it.
End of game has always been too long. Teams have always used fouls at the end to slow the game down and stop the clock. They should’ve been reduced the number of timeouts at the end. If your point guard can’t control the game, so be it.
Way too many timeouts in the NBA. That and the refs call a million fouls during the game but then suddenly let them play at the end. One or the other please.
Agreed. NBA officiating has become hot garbage…I don’t understand how they could take all physicality out of the game. Players run into a defender and flail around and get free throws….the Lou Williams and James Harden BS foul calls could be changed