CJ McCollum has been performing admirably in all possible aspects of basketball. On the court, he was crucial in the New Orleans Pelicans successfully making a push into the Playoffs and then winning two games against the Phoenix Suns. Off the court, McCollum has been leading the NBA Players Association as its President since last August.
McCollum also inked a deal to become an analyst at ESPN, so there are a lot of things CJ is trying to do right now. As the President of the NBPA, McCollum will be a crucial voice in the Collective Bargaining Agreement negotiations next season.
One of the talking points in the CBA agreement will be whether the NBA season needs to be reduced from 82 games to avoid player’s load managing or taking rest days. McCollum as the NBPA President has said he will vote with whatever the consensus is, but believes that players still take pride in going through the 82 game season as part of the legacy of the game.
“Saying that this rule (reducing the games from 82) is appeasing the players is blasphemy. There’s a lot of players who just wanna play 82 games, they want to protect the identity of this league and the legacy of this league. We have to figure out collectively as a whole what’s best for us. These things have only been discussed so far, there is no definitive plan of action.”
A shortened season would mean massive commercial losses for the NBA. which could impact how the players are compensated. 82 games are the long-running standard in the NBA and changing it would create a lot of opposition. If the league wants regular-season games to mean more, they need to come up with a different strategy to make them more viable.
If McCollum is voicing the players when he talks about the legacy of the league, then it most likely will stay pat at 82 games. There are bigger issues to discuss when the CBA comes around anyway, with owners looking to avoid more Ben Simmons-type situations where a player sits out a season and also demands his full salary for the year.
