Steve Kerr is a b**** confirmed Spoiler obligatory McHale comment: You're playing basketball for a living. Recharge your batteries? Every morning you should get up and get on your knees and thank God that you're playing basketball for a living. Someone is actually paying you, in some cases millions and millions, in other cases hundreds of thousands at the minimum to play basketball. If you have to recharge your battery to play basketball, I understand recharging my battery that I've done three double shifts, I'm laying cement, and I come home. I understand that. I don't understand that, recharge your battery for what? To be able to come out here and play basketball for a living? If we have to do that, you're in the wrong sport, you're doing the wrong thing. This is a high energy game that requires total commitment but it's a joy to play. It's fun. — Rockets coaching legend™ Kevin McHale https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/6198109/2025/04/13/warriors-coach-steve-kerr-nba-82-game-season/ Kerr added that he was a proponent of the NBA shortening its schedule from 82 regular-season games to 65. Kerr feels so strongly about this issue, he emailed NBA commissioner Adam Silver before the start of this season to plead his case. “I’m concerned about the product because I think we are asking way too much of our players,” Kerr said in November. “The game has never been more difficult to play at a high level night after night after night. We should account for that. We all need to be thinking about that, for sure.” In his playing days, Kerr watched Michael Jordan suit up in all 82 regular-season games twice when they were teammates on the Chicago Bulls. Kerr accomplished that feat four times himself. He didn’t miss a game for the Bulls at any point during the 1993-94, 1994-95, 1995-96 or 1996-97 seasons. Including the playoffs, Kerr played 385 games across that four-year window, an average of more than 96 games per season. Why does a former player with those credentials believe the length of the season needs to be reviewed? “Pace and space,” Kerr said. “When I played, you didn’t have to run out to 30 feet to cover a shooter. Now, you do. Back then, you played the game at a very small circumference. Now, it’s a big, wide circle, and you have to cover the entire court. Everyone is playing faster.” In January 2024, the NBA published a 57-page report focused on the increasing number of games players were missing. The report tracked stars — defined as players who were All-Stars or All-NBA selections in the current season or two prior seasons — across five decades. The report found that the average number of games stars missed in a season had more than doubled in the 2020s compared to the 1980s. Decade | Games missed per season 1980s | 10.4 1990s |10.6 2000s | 13.9 2010s | 17.5 2020s | 23.9 The report concluded there was no link between players being load managed — i.e., rested — and a decreased risk of future injury. That backed up what Joe Dumars, the NBA’s vice president of basketball operations, had told coaches three months earlier, some of whom were skeptical. Kerr is one of the NBA’s staunchest advocates for a shorter regular season. He’s skeptical he will ever see it, though. “We should be playing fewer games,” Kerr said. “Everyone knows that. But it’s a money issue. How many of the constituents are willing to take less money?” Kerr believes that shortening the regular season would create a better on-court product. He’s also realistic that few of the NBA’s key stakeholders are willing to endure short-term pain for long-term gain. “A lot of things have evolved, including the rules,” Kerr said. “It’s on us to adapt to that as coaches and as caretakers of the league. I just have so much faith in Adam Silver and respect for the league management. “What I don’t have faith in is America’s willingness to cut back on a few profits here and there in the name of quality. I don’t think that’s in our nature in America.” New Orleans Pelicans guard CJ McCollum has been the president of the NBA Players Association since 2021. McCollum prefers to leave the length of the regular season alone. “The game is continuing to evolve,” McCollum said. “There are a lot of injuries taking place right now. But I prefer to play an 82-game season. … I enjoy the challenge of trying to get through a long season. There are back-to-backs. There are quote-unquote schedule losses where you land at 3 (a.m.) or 4 (a.m.). Your plane gets stuck. It’s always challenging. But you have a small amount of time to play basketball. You try to maximize it. When it’s over, it’s over.”
a good position for a coach of older players. that plus Draymond bringing the games to complete stoppage, with his usual antics, should extend the careers of an aging team.
I' I'll never not find it hilarious these entitled people complaining about how difficult it is to work out and play a sport for a living and being richer than 99.999% of the population for doing so.
