Adam Silver floats the idea of 40-minute games in the NBA

2025-01-30T09:55:53+00:00 2025-01-30T10:20:56+00:00.

Giannis Askounis

30/Jan/25 09:55

Eurohoops.net

More changes to the NBA seem possible with the league considering options beyond North America, including reducing game length to 40 minutes

By Johnny Askounis/ info@eurohoops.net

The commissioner of the NBA, Adam Silver is exploring the idea of following other competitions around the world and reducing the length of games from 48 to 40 minutes.

Silver, 62, talked about a possible adjustment of the games in the league based in North America during Wednesday’s The Dan Patrick Show.

“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,”  he projected resistance to such a huge change, “I am a fan of four ten-minute quarters.” 

“I’m not sure that many others are,” he estimated, “ Putting aside what it means for records and things like that, I think that a two-hour format for a game is more consistent with modern television habits. People in arenas aren’t asking us to shorten games, but I think as a television program, Olympic basketball is two hours, college basketball is of course 40 minutes.”

“It’s such a dramatic change to the game. Something like that would have to be talked more about,” he added previewing discussions on the topic between the involved parties.

Behind constant confirmation by Silver, the NBA is actively seeking ways to enter the basketball world of Europe in some capacity. Whatever the case and if such an expansion takes place, potentially matching the established format in Europe on four ten-minute quarters can probably facilitate collaboration on many levels.

Photo Credit: Getty Images

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