Steve Kerr has never been afraid to say what others in the league would rather leave unsaid. The Golden State Warriors head coach used a media session on Monday to once again call for a significant structural change to the NBA season, one he fully admits the league office will not want to hear.
Steve Kerr Makes His Case for a Shorter NBA Season
Steve Kerr was asked what he would prioritize if he were in NBA commissioner Adam Silver’s position. His answer was immediate and unambiguous.
“I know this will not be a popular opinion in the league office, but I will continue to say it because it’s obvious,” Kerr said. “We need to play fewer games. We need to take 10 games off the schedule. I think it would be great for the league. And I get it, it’s revenue, and you’d have to get everybody to agree to take a little less money, and that’s a really hard thing to do. But what I know about the league, about coaching, about how hard it is to play the modern game with the pace and the space… I think it would be a more competitive and healthier league if we played fewer games.”
Steve Kerr:
“We need to play fewer games. We need to take 10 games off the schedule. The modern game with the pace and the space I think it would be a more competitive and healthier league if we played fewer games” pic.twitter.com/xfzHjfdtug
— Oh No He Didn’t (@ohnohedidnt24) March 10, 2026
The argument is one Kerr has been making for years. He floated a 72-game schedule as far back as 2022 and repeated the call ahead of this season. He also raised concerns about the rapid pace of play, which he said is contributing to soft-tissue injuries across the league.
What has changed this time around is the personal weight behind the message. The Warriors have watched their season unravel due to injuries. Stephen Curry has appeared in just 39 of the team’s 63 games, and Jimmy Butler tore his ACL in January, ending his season. A promising season for the team was effectively over before the trade deadline.
Kerr is not alone in sensing the problem. Teams averaging close to 100 possessions per game have pushed the physical demands of the sport to levels previous generations of players never faced. The pace-and-space era has made the NBA a more exciting product, and a far more punishing one on the bodies that produce it.
The benefits of a shorter schedule extend beyond injury prevention. Fewer games would reduce the number of back-to-backs that coaches and players have long complained about. This limits the incentive for star players to rest for load management and makes each individual game carry more weight in the standings.
Tanking, which has become one of the league’s most persistent and frustrating problems, would also feel less pronounced in a tighter calendar where every game matters more.
Why the NBA Is Unlikely to Act, and Why Kerr Keeps Saying It Anyway
The obstacle, as Kerr himself acknowledged, is financial. The NBA’s current television rights deals generate enormous revenue tied directly to the volume of games being played. Cutting 10 games from the schedule means cutting 10 games’ worth of national broadcasts, ticket sales, and sponsorship exposure.
Getting every team owner, player, and league executive to agree to absorb that loss is, in Kerr’s own words, “a really hard thing to do.”
He has been blunt about the chances of change before. “Good luck, in any industry,” he said earlier this season when reflecting on whether the league would act. “Imagine some big company saying, ‘We’re not as concerned about our stock price.’ Come on, that’s not happening. We know that.”
There are also concerns about what a shorter schedule would mean for the integrity of historical records. Statistical milestones and iron man streaks are built on the foundation of an 82-game season. Compressing that framework can inevitably complicate how future achievements are measured against past achievements.
For now, nothing suggests the league is seriously entertaining the idea. But Kerr’s consistency on the subject and the very public toll injuries have taken on the Warriors this season ensure the conversation is not going away.
