Adam Silver Floats Rule Changes, Defends NBA Ratings

The basketball world has not been kind to NBA commissioner Adam Silver after he said on The Dan Patrick Show that he is “a fan of four 10-minute quarters” over the traditional 12-minute quarters.

Silver acknowledged records and statistics could be affected if the change were implemented, which has been a common argument across all sports for cutting time or total number of games in a season. 

But four 10-minute quarters have worked in most other basketball leagues across the world. 

It’s the format in the Olympics, which follows FIBA rules. It’s also observed in other professional leagues like the WNBA and EuroLeague. NCAA college basketball is also a total of 40 minutes, though the women’s game has adapted to four quarters while the men play two halves.

Silver said a change to a 40-minute format would be beneficial to “modern television habits” as it would cut the game’s full run time to two hours. 

The NBA’s viewership has been a hot topic this season, as the league dealt with double-digit declines through the first two months of the season before its Christmas Day slate cut the drop to about 4%.

The commissioner described ratings as “roughly even” this year compared to last year and said he’s been frustrated by the narrative about the league’s ratings, given declines in other leagues and across traditional television at large.

“There’s a lot of people out there who may not be fans of the NBA and become consumed with that story,” Silver told Patrick. “[The] NBA seems to take a disproportionate amount of that discussion.” 

Other Rule Changes

It’s unlikely the NBA will switch to 10-minute quarters, as Silver said he’s “in the minority” of those in favor of the shift. But it’s clear the NBA is experimenting with radical changes across the board under Silver’s leadership.

The G League incorporated a free throw rule change in 2019 where only one free throw is attempted for any foul that would typically result in free throws, worth one, two, or three points depending on the circumstance. Silver alluded to a slightly tweaked version of this rule, which was “discussed a little” by the league, during his interview with Patrick.

The NBA has also changed its overall season format, adding the play-in tournament in 2020–2021 and the In-Season Tournament, now called the Emirates NBA Cup, last season.