CJ McCollum Goes Off On The Prospect Of Shortening The NBA Season

June 07, 2022

CJ McCollum had a poignant response on "First Take."

Recently, NBA commissioner Adam Silver floated the idea of making the NBA season shorter. He believes that too many players are getting injured and that fewer games could very well mean a better product going forward, especially when it comes to the playoffs. This is an idea that has gotten many people riled up, especially since it is believed that the players are being protected even more than usual.

Stephen A. Smith believes the players are being coddled a bit too much here, however, CJ McCollum called Smith out for this line of thinking on First Take. As you can see down below, McCollum explains exactly why this move doesn't benefit the players. He even stated that players want to play as many games as possible and that the whole "coddling" theory is simply a myth. Either way, McCollum just wants what's best for the players and the game of basketball.



“You have to adapt or you die,” McCollum said. “… The game evolved. The way the game has played has evolved. The TV licensing deals have evolved…  I think the issue here and what we have to address and figure out is, what’s best for the game. Obviously, there’s financial implications, there’s a revenue situation that we have to figure out. What’s best for the governors, what’s best for the players, and what’s the happy medium. But to say that this rule is appeasing players is blasphemy because there’s a lot of players that just want to play 82 games.

All these things are just being discussed right now, there’s no definitive plan of action,” continued the Pelicans guard. “… Me as a player personally, I wanna do what’s best to protect the interest of us, whatever that looks like… We have to stop assuming that this is for the players. How do we not know the league as a whole to make the game better?”

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