Good morning, I’m Dan Gartland. I wasn’t thinking about how long the game was taking when I watched the Warriors knock off the Thunder.

In today’s SI:AM:

👋 De’Aaron Fox wants out
🤔 MLB’s Chiefs?
😲 Cooper Flagg’s amazing January

NBA commissioner Adam Silver made waves on Wednesday when he said in an interview on the Dan Patrick Show that he was in favor of the league shortening the game from 48 to 40 minutes.

“Something else that I’m a fan of, and I’m probably in the minority, as we get more involved in global basketball—the NBA is the only league that plays 48 minutes,” Silver said. “I am a fan of four 10-minute quarters. I’m not sure that many others are. Putting aside what it means for records and things like that, I think a two-hour format for a game is more consistent with modern television habits. People in arenas aren’t asking us to shorten the game, but as a television program: two hours, that’s Olympic basketball, college basketball of course.”

Part of the job of a league commissioner is to think about ways in which the game can be improved. Another part of the job is floating those ideas publicly to gauge people’s reaction. We saw this earlier in the winter with MLB commissioner Rob Manfred’s suggestion that teams might be able to circumvent the batting order and call upon any hitter they wish for a “golden at-bat.” As with Manfred’s suggestion, it doesn’t sound like the NBA is anywhere close to implementing Silver’s game-shortening proposal. But if it’s something the commissioner felt strongly enough about to bring up in an interview, it’s definitely worth taking seriously.

Silver’s rationale for shortening quarters is the most interesting part of this. Is anyone really tuning out of NBA games because they take too long to complete? Silver pointed to MLB’s 2023 introduction of the pitch clock as a positive development for that league. And the pitch clock did succeed in shortening MLB games (from 3:03 on average in 2022 to 2:36 in ’24), but the decrease in overall game length isn’t what has benefited MLB—it’s the way the game moves more quickly now with less dead time. Fans don’t care that they get home from the stadium or turn off the TV a half hour earlier than before. They care that they spend much less time watching a pitcher putz around with the rosin bag and a hitter adjust his batting gloves. The NBA doesn’t have that sort of dead time that can be trimmed from the game.

NBA games don’t take all that long to begin with. The 11 games played Wednesday night averaged two hours and 15 minutes. NBA games are the shortest average of any of the four major North American men’s pro leagues. The NFL doesn’t have any trouble attracting massive TV audiences for games that routinely exceed three hours, whether or not that aligns with “modern television habits.”

The NBA might be in need of some kind of rules tweak to boost interest in the regular season. Viewership numbers are down this season, which is something that has caused a fair amount of handwringing from media members. It’s tough to nail down the possible causes of the ratings slip. One theory is that fans aren’t enjoying a style of play that is increasingly reliant on the three-pointer, something Silver has also said the league is looking into. The NBA has already taken steps to entice teams to make their star players available more consistently and discourage load management.

Making games shorter may solve some of the NBA’s perception problems. Playing fewer minutes could help keep players fresher over the course of a long season, although the effect would be far smaller than reducing the number of games or spreading the schedule out. There could be a few fans who are persuaded to tune in under the assumption that the game will take up less of their time. Condensing the game might lead to a more aggressive style of play as players seek to maximize the value of each possession.

The biggest issue with the change, which Silver acknowledged, is that it would wreak havoc on the league’s records. Historical comparison of per-game statistics would be next to impossible. That’s not a minor issue, either. Being able to weigh a player’s achievements against his predecessors is a major part of building the narratives that make sports fun to follow.

The NBA’s real problem might not be that games are too long but that there are too many of them. If the NBA wants to increase interest in regular season games, make them mean more. An 82-game schedule gives teams a cushion to take nights off and still be able to make the playoffs. If a Tuesday night game in mid-December had higher stakes, people would be more inclined to turn on their TV and watch, regardless of whether the game took two hours and 15 minutes to complete or a flat two hours. Reducing the amount of inventory the NBA had to sell to broadcast partners would be a massive gamble and likely result in a reduction in revenue. But if it led to increased interest on a per-game basis, it could be a smart long-term play.

… things I saw last night:

5. Victor Wembanyama’s heated interaction with Ivica Zubac.
4. This sweet assist by UNLV’s Dedan Thomas.
3. Luke Hughes’s coast-to-coast goal on a two-on-one with his brother Jack.
2. Grant Nelson’s clutch three for Alabama as the Tide held off an upset bid from Mississippi State.
1. Stephen Curry’s dagger three against the Thunder from way behind the line.