The Golden State Warriors are coming off two straight brutal losses against the Utah Jazz and Chicago Bulls, a pair of teams not overly eager on winning.
The Warriors are headed the wrong direction shortly after a miraculous win over the Houston Rockets, and head coach Steve Kerr's latest comments do not help matters much.
Golden State played the Jazz and the Bulls on back-to-back days. When asked about this, Kerr reiterated his desire for a shorter NBA season. It's something he has spoken about in the past and while he makes very good points, it still just makes the Warriors look bad.
Steve Kerr needs to cool it with calls for shorter schedule
Kerr said the same thing back in November. His argument is that by shortening the schedule, that will lead to fewer injuries, less tanking, and a higher quality product for fans. He may very well be right, but he also acknowledged that the financial realities of the NBA would never allow for something like that to happen.
NBA owners are never going to agree that fewer games is better because it would affect their bottom line. Fewer games means less tickets, fewer broadcasts, less ad revenue, less everything. In short, it would just never happen, meaning there really isn't even a point in bringing it up.
Plus, there is a historical element as well to consider. All-time stats would not be as comparable between eras if there were different numbers of games played. Some may not care about that, but people who like seeing all-time records broken would be robbed of that with fewer games.
Perhaps Kerr thinks that by bringing it up, it could get people thinking about a shorter schedule and could lead for more calls for the NBA to take action. Perhaps, but that sort of change will probably not happen for years if it ever happens at all which, again, seems unlikely.
Rather than bring about change, it makes the Warriors seem like sore losers. Every team deals with back-to-back games on the schedule this is nothing new. Every team deals with injuries and gets banged up throughout the course of a season. No one is going to feel bad for the Warriors that they lost Jimmy Butler for the year and have been without Stephen Curry for almost a month and a half.
The Warriors just have to grit it out and try to get through what has been a challenging season. While Kerr is not trying to make excuses, calling for a shorter season can be interpreted that way. Perhaps Kerr should keep this opinion to himself for the moment, or at least bring it up with the league only behind closed doors.