Stephen A. Smith shreds Steve Kerr for suggesting fewer NBA games: ‘Want us to put a diaper on these guys?’

Steve Kerr is advocating for a shorter regular season to improve the overall NBA product, and Stephen A. Smith thinks he’s a hypocrite.

Kerr has previously expressed concern about the NBA’s increased pace of play being able to withstand an 82-game schedule, believing it’s leading to more injuries. And he repeated the concern after the Golden State Warriors lost to the Utah Jazz 129-126 Monday night, suggesting the NBA should shave 10 games off its regular season schedule.

“I know this will not be a popular opinion in the league office, but I will continue to say it because it’s obvious we need to play fewer games, we need to take 10 games off the schedule,” Kerr told reporters. “I get it, it’s revenue, and you’d have to get everybody to agree to take a little less money, and that’s a really hard thing to do. But what I know about the league, about coaching and how hard it is to play the modern game with the pace and the space, I think it would be a more competitive and healthier league if we played fewer games.”

Tuesday morning on First Take, Stephen A. Smith heard Kerr’s sensible suggestion, albeit an unlikely solve, and called the idea of reducing the NBA schedule disappointing.

“Incredibly disappointed to hear Steve Kerr say what he said,” Smith began. “When Steve Kerr speaks, we should listen, because he always has something substantive to say. But just because it’s substantive, doesn’t make you right. And I think the part that disappoints me about Steve Kerr on this particular issue is that Steve Kerr is one of those dudes that will lean on history to justify what’s happening in the modern-day era, but he doesn’t do that with this issue.”

Smith noted the continuously increasing NBA salaries and payrolls with players landing contracts worth nearly $350 million, believing it’s hypocritical of Kerr to turn around and ask for less games.

“And now you come to us talking about there should be 10 less games?” Smith asked. “What the hell you want next, you want us to put a diaper and a bib on these guys?

Smith claimed the players who are still trying to get their big contract aren’t advocating for less games. He similarly noted Kerr never called for less games as a player, a general manager, or even when he was starting out as a head coach. But Smith accused Kerr of being more comfortable in suggesting a reduced schedule now that he has nine championships on his resume.

“The NBA just signed an 11-year $77 billion contract. How do you get that if you don’t play those games? And oh, by the way, let me make people very, very uncomfortable with what I’m about to say. I don’t hear hockey players talking about playing less games. They play 82 games,” Smith ranted. “If you’re Steve Kerr, don’t talk about what’s good for the game while talking about keeping the money…your argument would be far more profound if Steve Kerr came out and said, ‘You know what? Let’s give back some of these monies…’ But when you never talk about giving the money back, but you talk about giving some of the workload back, that is more than hypocritical. And that’s where the disappointment lies.”

The best hockey players play significantly fewer minutes than NBA players, and they also make significantly less money. It’s not really a fair or even relevant comparison. And in Kerr’s defense, he did note the challenge of getting everyone to agree on trading money for a lighter regular season schedule.

A reduced schedule would give players more time to recover between games without the aid of load management. Most fans wouldn’t even mind 10 fewer NBA games per season. If anything, the lockout shortened 66-game regular season in 2012 was more exciting because it put a premium on the regular-season schedule. But as Kerr noted, giving back games means giving back money. And the NBA isn’t in the business of selling its product and then having to give money back by cutting games.