Make the NBA better: 7 New Year’s resolutions for the league in 2026

Big picture, the NBA is in a really good place. We’re seeing record-setting attendance. Viewership is up significantly year-over-year. The league just struck a $76 billion media deal. Franchise values are higher than ever.

But it’s not perfect. To steal the HoopIdea motto from my pals Royce Webb and Henry Abbott: Basketball is the best game ever. Now let’s make it better.

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The biggest slack in the system is that star players aren’t playing enough games. The biggest names used to miss only one out of every 10 games. Nowadays, we’re seeing one out of every three games. Nikola Jokić, arguably the best player in the game, is the latest superstar to be sidelined for a big chunk of the season. At the moment, the Jokić injury has brought a lot of hot-button topics to the forefront.

So, let’s get to it. Here are seven New Year’s resolutions for Adam Silver and the NBA to consider.

1. Make it a 58-game regular season

It’s time. Play each team twice. Once at home, once on the road. Raise the stakes for every game. Kill the dreaded back-to-back. Football-ify the weekly schedule (say, Tuesdays and Sundays). Lower the risk of injury. Let everyone breathe. Let everyone prosper.

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In 2019, Kevin Arnovitz reported that the league and its teams formally explored the 58-game idea as part of a comprehensive plan to add a not-yet-established in-season tournament and play-in tournament. Those two tournaments have been a success. Now it’s time for the other part of that to come to fruition: the 58-game season.

Any momentum of a 58-game season came to a screeching halt during the pandemic-shortened seasons, which did not see a dramatic improvement on the injury front. Commissioner Adam Silver has argued that the league studied the COVID-affected seasons and found no evidence that reducing games would lead to a corresponding improvement in player health. You don’t need to be a rocket scientist to see why using the pandemic seasons as a control group would be a foolish idea.

The NBA knows the best product is when games are spaced out without back-to-backs and plenty of days allowing for the body…

Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/nba/article/make-the-nba-better-7-new-years-resolutions-for-the-league-in-2026-152922764.html

Author : Tom Haberstroh

Publish date : 2026-01-01 15:29:00

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