Mavericks’ Nowitzki says NBA season should be shortened

Dirk Nowitzki has a problem with the NBA messing with his game.

The Dallas Mavericks’ superstar is about as old-school as it gets among players and he doesn’t like the idea of the league testing a 44-minute game this weekend when Brooklyn and Boston play an exhibition game.

After joking that it should be four eight-minute quarters in the preseason, Nowitzki said he’s a fan of the way things are now.

“I like the game the way it is with four (quarters) times 12 minutes, with the 24-second shot clock,” he said. “I think everything is timed pretty good. I would never mess with a product that’s good, but I don’t know.

“I don’t like it, but if that’s something they want to look at, I guess we’ll wait and see.”

Nowitzki does, however, feel like fewer games would be a good thing for the league, although he understands that the owners and players both need to have the 82-game regular-season schedule to support the massive salary cap and to give teams a fighting chance to be profitable.

“I think you don’t need 82 games to determine the best eight in each conference,” he said. “That could be done a lot quicker, but I always understand that it’s about money, and every missed game means missed money for both parties, for the league, for the owners, for the players. I would say that in the mid-60s (number of games) would be enough, which is still a lot of games.”

Rick Carlisle is president of the NBA Coaches’ Association and has been clued in on all the implications that come with the experiment of a shorter game.

“It’s an idea that has a lot of merits,” Carlisle said. “There are some very desirable aspects to it and there are other things you have to consider, too. But there’s enough interest in it that a couple teams are going to play the format and so it’s interesting.

“In this scenario, if you do the math, you would decrease the season on a minutes basis by 6.8 games. From that standpoint, one of the biggest things we need to consider is the health and longevity of our players’ careers. If you could decrease the season by 6.8 games and you factor that those minutes conceivably could be at complete exhaustion, you’re energizing the season. And you’re helping your players play longer and play better. So we’ll see how it goes.”