Former NBA player Richard Jefferson hates the idea of shortening the NBA season, calling it the “epitome of coddling players.”
Jefferson, who turned his 17-year NBA career into a spot as a popular analyst on ESPN, said on the network’s “NBA Today” that decreasing the number of games down from 82 makes “absolutely no sense.” The two-minute rant went viral on Twitter over the weekend.
“It’s absurd,” Jefferson said on ESPN. “They have done every single thing…You want to shorten the season? Like how much more do we have to make this coddling and all this stuff go with the players?”
Richard Jefferson’s 2 min. rant on shortening the NBA season😳
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“Professional sports is not good on your body. It’s supposed to separate the people that can do it from the people that can’t do it… Part of greatness is longevity… I think this is a joke.”
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The talk of shortening the NBA season comes amid complaints about star players being tired and more susceptible to injuries during the postseason. ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski has reported that the NBA is considering shortening the season to 78 games but adding an in-season tournament near Christmas.
“If you were talking about the in-season tournament, I think that’s 100%, maybe, if you want to have a little bit more space,” Jefferson said. “But [shortening the season] is the epitome of coddling players to make sure that everything is OK. On top of the fact that they’re taking rest days. How are you going to give them rest days and then say ’we’re going to shorten it to 60 games, 70 games.’ At the end of the day, they’re still going to take time off.”
However, NBA Commissioner Adam Silver said any talks about schedule changes are preliminary. Silver did say he is open to changes that have a “direct impact” on decreasing injuries.
• Jacob Calvin Meyer can be reached at jmeyer@washingtontimes.com.
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