Damian Lillard Cosigns Van Gundy Halftime Rule Change
Damian Lillard Cosigns Jeff Van Gundy ... Let's Get Rid Of Halftime!
Damian Lillard agrees with former head coach turned broadcaster Jeff Van Gundy ... halftime's pointless, and the league would be wise to eliminate the 15-minute break!
"I’m w [Van Gundy] on halftime lol… I do not fw it," the 7x All-Star proclaimed on social media, responding to the former Knicks coach's proposed rule change.
It was during a recent interview with The Athletic that Van Gundy suggested several substantial ways to speed up/improve the game.
"This whole idea of what goes on at halftime, I think is so misunderstood," Jeff told the outlet. "It’s a lot of either praising what just happened or correcting. But you could do that in two minutes out by the bench in an elongated timeout."
Bottom line, Jeff feels halftime is too long and drawn out, describing it as "the biggest waste of time," adding players only need time to go to the bathroom and possibly make a few adjustments, which could be done within 5 minutes.
The 61-year-old analyst didn't stop at halftime ... JVG also said the NBA should save free throws for crunch time.
“So my most radical one is to eliminate free throws until the last four minutes,” Van Gundy said. "If you get fouled on a shooting foul, you just get the points. You don’t go to the line. And you don’t go to the line for technical free throws."
While the networks probably won't love Jeff's halftime idea (commercials!) -- likely making it a nonstarter -- Van Gundy is adamant his free throw rule change needs to be adopted.
"The only person that likes free throws is a play-by-play announcer because they can wax poetically about some story. It’s the extra point of the NBA. It serves no rational, reasonable purpose."