During an interview with Dan Patrick, NBA commissioner Adam Silver asserted he has interest in experimenting with four 10-minute quarters instead of its 12-minute format. The NBA is the only basketball competition with a longer game time.
"Something else that I'm a fan of and I'm probably in the minority is... as we get more involved in global basketball, the NBA is the only league that plays 48 minutes." said Silver. "I am a fan of four ten-minute quarters. I'm not sure that many others are. Putting aside what it means for records and things like that, I think that a two-hour format for a game is more consistent with sort of modern television habits. People in the arena are not asking us to shorten the games, but I think as a television program..."
The MLB shortened the average game duration by instituting a pitch clock and it has been lauded by critics. However, the MLB reduced the amount of down time within the game and didn't reduce the amount of innings or outs in a game. The NBA could reduce game duration with some combination of expediting or eliminating replay reviews, reducing timeouts, and the amount of time spent on free throws.
