Jeff Van Gundy has some radical ideas to speed up NBA games.
In an interview with The Athletic’s Richard Deitsch, the ESPN broadcaster proposed some drastic alterations. Van Gundy wants to eliminate free throws until late in the fourth quarter, instead giving teams automatic points when fouled in the act of shooting. That would also apply to technical fouls.
“I don’t think you want to take away free throws in the last four minutes of a game, but let’s speed it up,” Van Gundy said. “The only person that likes free throws is a play-by-play announcer because they can wax poetically about some story. It’s the extra point of the NBA. It serves no rational, reasonable purpose.”
NEW: Jeff Van Gundy has some things to say.
• He’d eliminate free throws until the final four minutes of a game.
• “If you get fouled on a shooting foul, you just get the points.
• He'd eliminate halftime.A sit-down with the NBA Finals analysthttps://t.co/elhIQesL7j
— Richard Deitsch (@richarddeitsch) May 31, 2023
He’d also eliminate halftime, which he called “the biggest waste of time,” or reduce it to five minutes for a quick bathroom break.
“This whole idea of what goes on at halftime I think is so misunderstood,” he said. “It’s a lot of either praising what just happened or correcting. But you could do that in two minutes out by the bench in an elongated timeout.”
MLB implemented significant changes to quicken the action this year, but a pitch clock doesn’t fundamentally change baseball the way abolishing free throws would turn the NBA upside down.
To Van Gundy’s NFL extra-point analogy, 27 of 32 teams made over 90 percent of their point-after tries in 2022. On the other hand, Stephen Curry is the most accurate foul shooter in NBA history at a 90.9 percent clip.
Eliminating free throws would certainly accomplish Van Gundy’s goal of speeding up games. However, scoring would likely skyrocket, especially if teams play softer defense in fear of giving away automatic points with a foul.
ESPN and advertisers also may not agree with Van Gundy’s suggestion to axe halftime.
NBA Commissioner Adam Silver has shown a willingness to think outside the box, but Van Gundy’s ideas seem unlikely to get implemented anytime soon.
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