George Karl Thinks a Shorter NBA Season Would Be Better


According to Denver Nuggets head coach George Karl, last year’s shortened regular season was an ideal arrangement. From NBA.com: “The thing that lacked last year, I thought, was a foundation of fundamentals and the depth, maybe, of your packages. The depth of your defense and offense. Veteran teams had the opportunity to have a bigger playbook. But I thought we got the most out of our season that we could ever hope to. We had two or three opportunities to fall flat on our faces and we didn’t do it, and I think that will make us stronger. During the season, you could see that teams were going to come back [to the pack] because you knew the schedule was going to get to them. When we went [5-10] in February, it wasn’t about record. The schedule said, ‘All right, you maybe should have won six.’ […] ‘I’m sure Commissioner Stern won’t like this, but I think the product would be better if we shortened the season. When we start playing in late October, the people are thinking football. If you could just get us less fatigue [in a shorter season], I think you’d have a better product. When they started on Christmas Day, I thought, ‘This is not a bad idea. This should be the start of NBA basketball … Maybe start Dec. 1 and play 62 games, whatever number they’d come to.'”