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Colin Cowherd Calls for Radical Change to NBA Playoffs After Tyrese Haliburton Injury

This would be a major change.

Kyle Koster

Colin Cowherd wants shorter NBA playoff series
Colin Cowherd wants shorter NBA playoff series / The Herd on X
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Tyrese Haliburton tried to play through injury and the consequences will be pretty devastating to both him and the Indiana Pacers. Although there is no timeline yet for when the clutch postseason performer may be able to return to the court, everyone seems to agree that it won't be for a long time. Haliburton going down in Game 7 of the NBA Finals was enough for Colin Cowherd to push for a significant change to the postseason shared on his show Monday afternoon.

"The NBA is on notice," the host said. "Shorten the playoffs."

"The NBA has never been a stubborn league," he continued. "Move off seven-game playoff series until you get to the Finals."

Cowherd allows that best-of-7 in the conference finals may be OK. He thinks the league will be as well.

"The oligarchs and billionaires have a $76 billion contract coming. They can give a couple of games back."

It's an intriguing idea yet one that's not likely to happen. Back in the day the opening round was best-of-five and then it expanded. There's been a ton of talk about reducing the regular season down from 82 games but that would mean a lot of people giving up a lot of money and that's a tough thing to pull off in professional sports.

Shorter series would conceivably mean higher stakes for every contest and perhaps elevate the product. It would also mean the sport is in the limelight for a shorter amount of time and it's hard to imagine the NBA loving that.

There's no question that more intense playoff action means more stress on the body of players who who may be given 100 opportunities to play a game per season. Yet all of them understand they can get hurt at any time and in any setting, even the preseason.

Don't hold your breath waiting for the league to take Cowherd's suggestion. Even if you think they should.

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Kyle Koster
KYLE KOSTER

Kyle Koster is an assistant managing editor at Sports Illustrated covering the intersection of sports and media. He was formerly the editor in chief of The Big Lead, where he worked from 2011 to '24. Koster also did turns at the Chicago Sun-Times, where he created the Sports Pros(e) blog, and at Woven Digital.

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