Silver:"Nothing magical about 82 games."

[PortCityProphet]

“There’s nothing magical about 82 games,” Silver continued. “It’s been in place for 50 years, but for the long-term planning of the league, as we learn more about the human body and the wear and tear of travel and the competitive landscape ... invariably we’ll look at the regular season. And in looking at the regular season, it may create more opportunities for international franchises.”

As NBA shoots for the stars in growing game, China and Europe are a 'one-off' — for now

Speaking in terms of expanding internationally

But as much as commissioner Adam Silver would love to test that theory, and to grow this game in more permanent ways overseas, there’s no way that’s happening in Asia or Europe anytime soon. Unless, that is, moguls such as Tesla/SpaceX CEO Elon Musk or Virgin CEO Richard Branson are able to follow through on their plans for high(er)-speed travel in the next few years.

Be it by rocket or supersonic aircraft, the idea of cutting this 14-hour flight from America’s West Coast to China in half (if not much more) is something that Silver and so many others in the NBA would welcome. Late last month, Musk gave a presentation at the International Astronautical Congress in Australia in which he shared his hopes of using reusable rockets to shuttle people anywhere in the world in under an hour.

Branson, meanwhile, has partnered with the startup company, Boom, to create planes that cruise at 1,451 miles per hour (New York to London in three hours and 20 minutes, with supersonic flight for passenger planes scheduled for 2023. And as Silver told USA TODAY Sports recently, the dare-to-dream possibilities mean that he'll remain open to the head-spinning possibilities.


“We can play games in China and Europe, or occasional preseason games as a one-off, but under existing airline technology, the planes aren’t fast enough to at least play in the current frame work of our regular season,” Silver, who did not attend Thursday's game but plans on attending the Warriors-Wolves preseason game in Shanghai on Sunday, said by phone. “(But) it may be something we’ll be looking at over the coming years, is what a regular season schedule look like a decade from now.”
The premise, of course, is that an 82-game schedule would likely be too taxing if there was intercontinental travel added to the schedule.

“There’s nothing magical about 82 games,” Silver continued. “It’s been in place for 50 years, but for the long-term planning of the league, as we learn more about the human body and the wear and tear of travel and the competitive landscape ... invariably we’ll look at the regular season. And in looking at the regular season, it may create more opportunities for international franchises.”

The next best thing, it seems, just might be Mexico City.

For all the focus on cities such as Seattle (which has a $600 million renovation in the works for KeyArena), Las Vegas and Louisville as top candidates for expansion, Silver has long been intrigued by the notion of making Mexico City the league’s next addition. As he noted, though, there are also “hurdles politically and economically to do it.”

“We’re not looking at expansion at the moment, but at the time we do turn to expansion, just as we’ve had enormous success in Canada with the (Toronto) Raptors, we do see enormous opportunity in Mexico City and think it could become the franchise for Latin America,” Silver said.

“Mexico City is a city with over 20 million people, a country of 130 million people, and a huge Mexican American population. We’re only looking at it from a more general standpoint – and we’re playing games (there) again in Dec. (the Brooklyn Nets are playing against the Oklahoma City Thunder on Dec. 7 and the Miami Heat on Dec. 9). It’s something we’ll continue to keep eye on.”

 

[The Fire]

Lol silver gives no fukks he’s tryna change everything
but idk, “if it ain’t broke don’t fix it”, the NBA ain’t exactly broke to me

 

[street heat]

Aight silver, chill out

 

[Fortunate Lee]

..then change it you bum

 

[DetroitEWarren]

Anything to help LeBron maintain his all time status , knowing damn well if the amount of games changed Bron would eventually own a bunch of all time records that wouldn't be touched in the future cause of less games smh. Leave that shyt the fukk alone Silver before I beat yo ass boy.


I'm not saying he is trying to help Bron directly though

 

[DonKnock]

"He's right, they should cut the season to 81 games to honor Kobe"

- @Big L Was the Biggest W

 

[threattonature]

I've always been of the belief that less games would let the league as a whole grow even more. Right now if you're an NBA junkie and you're the type that wants to watch every team of your game it doesn't leave you much time to watch other teams. If teams had 20 or 30 less games then that'd leave more times for people to watch teams outside of their own and become fans of more players on other teams. Plus theoretically with less games players would go hard more often. Quality of play should go up.

 

[Scottie Drippin]

Both of the strike shortened seasons that I can remember were exciting from beginning to end.

The season should open on Christmas Day.

 

[Flight]

Nah I'm not a fan of this.

 

[SCORCH]

58 game season is the way to go. Everybody plays each other twice during the regular season (home & away).

Introduce a cup tournament (no seeds / conference shyt... just pick names out of a hat) with the final played during the all star break.

Keep the playoffs as it is.

@Don Ibiza Ibrahimovic @mastermind @horse. kills @Mwakenya

I dare you man to tell me this wouldn't be lit.

 

[Rekkapryde]

"He's right, they should cut the season to 81 games to honor Kobe"

- @Big L Was the Biggest W

Goat Commish

:blessedkobe:

 

[Rekkapryde]

58 game season is the way to go. Everybody plays each other twice during the regular season (home & away).

Introduce a cup tournament (no seeds / conference shyt... just pick names out of a hat) with the final played during the all star break.

Keep the playoffs as it is.

@Don Ibiza Ibrahimovic @mastermind @horse. kills @Mwakenya

I dare you man to tell me this wouldn't be lit.

like players and owners are willing to cut their checks 30%

 

[Willy Waffle]

I've always been of the belief that less games would let the league as a whole grow even more. Right now if you're an NBA junkie and you're the type that wants to watch every team of your game it doesn't leave you much time to watch other teams. If teams had 20 or 30 less games then that'd leave more times for people to watch teams outside of their own and become fans of more players on other teams. Plus theoretically with less games players would go hard more often. Quality of play should go up.

totally agree with that. but at the same time, im curious would ticket prices increase if there were 50-60 games.

 

[I AM WARHOL]

Soft. With new sports tech and medicine we should be able to increase games (not saying they should), not decrease them. This shyt ain't football

 

[The War Report]

NBA owners. :ldstare:

 

[tremonthustler1]

Both of the strike shortened seasons that I can remember were exciting from beginning to end.

The season should open on Christmas Day.

That season had back to back to backs, injuries galore and major fatigue.

All the while, everyone whined for 2 months because there was no hoops