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."
Colin Cowherd urges the NBA to have 5-game series in the playoffs after Tyrese Haliburton's Achilles injury.
— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) June 23, 2025
"The NBA is on notice. Shorten the playoffs...The oligarchs and the billionaires have a $76 billion contract coming. They can give a couple of games back." pic.twitter.com/xkvX7HmbZx
"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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This article was originally published on www.si.com as Colin Cowherd Calls for Radical Change to NBA Playoffs After Tyrese Haliburton Injury.
