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Frank Vogel not a fan of NBA experiment with 44-minute game

The league's experiment with a shorter game seems like a waste of time driven by television scheduling more than an effort to improve the game.

By Tom Lewis
Andy Lyons

The Brooklyn Nets and Boston Celtics will play a 44-minute preseason game on Sunday as the NBA experiments with ways to make their game flow better and shorten the length of games.

Well, actually they are looking to shorten the length of television broadcasts. Two hours maybe more favorable for broadcasters but ending the traditional 48-minute game seems a like a waste of time for just four minutes of game time.

Those minutes won't help preserve the wear and tear on the league's best players since they will still play plenty of minutes. Team playing rotations may be tighter and the reserve minutes will be less which is where Frank Vogel points toward as his main opposition to the experiment.

"I'm not a fan," Vogel said. "I see why they're doing it, we talked about it at the coaches meetings, but personally I don't really like it."

While it would make more sense to shorten the season if the concern is with player health, Vogel is not in favor of changing the length of the game nor the season.

"I don't have enough minutes to give all my guys enough minutes to keep them happy," Vogel said. "So you're going to take away four a game, that's going to make my job harder."

Personally, I like the 48-minute game because of the way basketball game times have always increased from youth hoops through the league. You start with 24 minutes in middle school to 32 minutes in high school to 40 minutes in college and 48 minutes in the NBA. Each eight minute jump weeds out players until the best of the best are playing the full 48 minutes. But then again, I'm goofy with numbers like that.

Reggie Miller also weighed in on the changes with a former player perspective. No surprise he has a different take on the wear and tear angle for players, although giving coaches challenges certainly won't help with game flow no matter how many minutes they play.

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