Stephen A. Smith fires back at Adam Silver with a smarter NBA fix

Stephen A. Smith is pushing back hard on Adam Silver’s plan to cut NBA games from 48 minutes to 40.

Instead, the ESPN star wants the league to eliminate back-to-back games.

Smith laid out his argument on his YouTube channel this week.

“I think the priority should be eliminating as many back-to-back games as possible,” he said.

The NBA currently schedules an average of 14.2 back-to-backs per team during the 2026–27 season.

Some teams play as many as 16.

Smith’s proposal comes as injuries to stars like Anthony Edwards and Tyrese Haliburton have already piled up just two weeks into the season.

Adam Silver has been floating the idea of trimming games to 40 minutes, similar to international basketball rules.

The logic is simple: less playing time per game means less wear and tear on players’ bodies.

But the idea has drawn heavy criticism from fans and analysts who say it would damage the integrity of the game.

Bill Simmons has been even more blunt.

On Tuesday’s episode of The Bill Simmons Podcast, the Ringer founder called the current 82-game schedule “inexcusable and semi-reprehensible.”

“You’re ruining your players … and you’re hurting careers, and you’re shortening careers,” Simmons said.

“This should be a 70-game season. And if you talk to literally everybody who plays basketball, all of them would say the season needs to be shorter. And if you don’t do it at this point, I just think it’s negligent. I really do. I think it’s actual negligence and greed.”

Simmons directed his criticism directly at Silver and the league’s owners.

“Listen, I don’t know how many times I’ve talked about this on the pod about the schedule and about how this, to me, is just inexcusable and semi-reprehensible that whoever is in charge of the league, which I think is Adam Silver these days, that he doesn’t care,” Simmons said.

The NBA has kept an 82-game regular season since 1967–68, except for seasons shortened by labor disputes or other disruptions.

Simmons also tied the schedule issue to the league’s upcoming expansion.

The NBA is expected to add teams in Las Vegas and Seattle, which would be its first expansion since the Charlotte Bobcats joined in 2004.

Simmons estimated that Las Vegas expansion fees could reach $9.5 billion and Seattle fees around $7.5 billion.

“So all these owners are getting, I don’t know, $16 billion in expansion fees,” he said.

In March, the New York Post reported that expansion fees could range from $7 billion to $10 billion per team.

That money would go to the NBA’s current owners, not shared with players.

Simmons argued that with that kind of revenue coming in, the league can afford to cut 12 games from the schedule.

But cutting games also means fewer home dates and fewer opportunities to sell tickets and concessions.

That financial reality is at the heart of the debate.

Smith’s back-to-back solution is a middle ground that would keep the 82-game season intact while reducing the most grueling stretches.

The NBA has already eliminated four-games-in-five-nights stretches from the regular-season schedule.

Teams also cannot sit two designated star players in the same game without an approved exception under the league’s Player Participation Policy.

Nationally televised games receive special protection, with stars generally expected to be available.

Exceptions exist for injuries, personal circumstances and approved rest restrictions based on age, career workload or serious injury history.

But back-to-backs remain a major source of player fatigue and injury risk.