The NBA and the NBA Players Association have a laundry list of things to work out for the league’s next collective bargaining agreement, but one item in particular that’s created a world of angry discourse in “NBA land” has to do with a possible change in how overtime games would be treated.
In a highly-detailed column from Bleacher Report’s Eric Pincus, this bomb about overtime was dropped at the very end of the piece.
Essentially, in an effort to place a limit on potential injuries, the length of games, and the whole “load management” factor with stars sitting out, some form of the Elam Ending would be implemented.
Here’s what Pincus reported:
Another potential change could be the use of a target score, but just for overtime. The G League has experimented with the rule in overtime during the regular season and for fourth quarters during the Winter Showcase in Las Vegas. In comparing regular overtime from the 2021-22 season to target-score overtime pre-Showcase, the length dipped from 13 minutes on average to 8.5 in total.
NBA writer Eric Pincus, Beacher Report
What’s interesting is this experiment was already tried in The G League for both the fourth quarter and overtime. What seems crazier and rather baffling is the hard evidence from that change in rules is the games dipped less than 4.5 minutes in total.
That hardly feels like the strong sell the NBA believe it’s selling. Not to mention we get the sense it would generally feel like an anti-climactic finish to a well-fought game. Teams fall behind and teams come back. From a fan’s perspective, it feels like a total and complete dud.
But here’s the real kicker. Again, from Pincus.
That would prevent overlong broadcasts and overloading player minutes, like Los Angeles Clippers forward Kawhi Leonard’s playing 46 minutes in a double-overtime loss to the Sacramento Kings on Friday.
So Clippers star Kawhi Leonard, one of the crowning founders of “load management,” played 46 minutes in a double-overtime loss to the Sacramento Kings. That hardly comes across as problematic, especially since it occurred in a wild weekend of NBA games that people still can’t stop talking about.
Of the countless hostile reactions to this new overtime possibility, radio host Doug Gottlieb said, “Makes sense. Kings vs Clippers was one of the most entertaining regular season games I’ve ever watched…. So let’s kill the possibility of it happening again.”