Michael Jordan didn't agree with recent comments made by LeBron James and Dirk Nowitzki about shortening the NBA season.
"I love both of those guys, but as an owner who played the game, I loved playing," Jordan said. "If I wasn't playing 82 games, I still would've been playing somewhere else because that's the love for the game I had. As a player, I never thought 82 games was an issue."
"But if that's what they want to do, 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.''
Both James and Nowitzki suggested fewer games would be a preferable alternative to shorter games as the NBA experiments with a 44-minute exhibition game, as opposed to the standard 48 minutes, this Sunday.
"It's not the minutes, it's the games," James said before the Cleveland Cavaliers' preseason win against the Indiana Pacers. "The minutes doesn't mean anything. We can play 50-minute games if we had to. It's just the games. We all as players think it's too many games. In our season, 82 games is a lot."
Nowitzki put forth a number in the "mid-60s" as an ideal amount of games in a season.
Jordan also disagreed with the shortening of games.
"I would never shorten the game by four minutes,'' Jordan said, "unless guys were having physical issues.''
Jordan pointed out the difference in long-term physical ailments between basketball players and football players as a reason that no schedule changes are needed.
"It's not like football,'' he said. "We don't really have to worry about concussions and some of the physical damage that football players deal with after they retire. I can understand football players wanting to play fewer games from a physical standpoint. But basketball's not the same. I'm not diminishing the fact that we go through a grueling season. But I wouldn't want to shorten the game or play 15-20 fewer games.''
Nowitzki acknowledged that cutting games would also lessen revenues for the league.
"I think you don't need 82 games to determine the best eight in each conference," Nowitzki said. "That could be done a lot quicker, but I always understand that it's about money, and every missed game means missed money for [all] parties -- for the league, for the owners, for the players. I understand all that, and that's why I don't think it's going to change anytime soon."
