It was well past midnight when the Philadelphia 76ers touched down in Charlotte. The star-studded team was in the middle of a back-to-back prepping for its league-high seventh game in just 12 days. You could call it an NBA "short night." Friday night in Philadelphia: a 7:30 p.m. ET national TV game against the defending champion New York Knicks. Shower, bus, shuffle onto the team plane for a nearly 500-mile trip down the coast. At the earliest, lights out at 2 a.m. ET. Then Saturday: an early 6 p.m. ET tip against the Hornets on Halloween.

Of the 426 back-to-backs on the NBA schedule, this was the second-shortest turnaround with travel: 22-and-a-half hours, with an overnight flight in between.

Fans in Charlotte saw the cost. LeBron James and Joel Embiid jerseys filled the stands, but both James (sciatica) and Embiid (plantar fasciitis) were ruled out managing injuries on the second night of the back-to-back. Fans paid good money for tickets and TV packages, not to mention parking and concessions and merch, and expected to see them.

But don't blame the players. Blame the schedule.

In my decade-plus covering the NBA, I have written about back-to-backs manytimes before. But as the 76ers sideline reporter for NBC Sports Philadelphia this season, I hadn't experienced one quite like this. And it was only October. Hundreds more still litter the schedule. With injuries sweeping through the league's stars — Stephen Curry (oblique) is now out multiple weeks — and fan trust at stake, the fix is overdue:

Ban back-to-backs and move to a 65-game schedule.

The NBA has always sold its stars. Right now, the league is breaking that promise.

The 82-game grind claims another star

Anthony Edwards used to be a loud critic against load management. At his first All-Star appearance in 2023, the 21-year-old star responded to a question about the league's hot-button issue.

"Just play, man," Edwards said. "If you 80%, you gotta play. I don't like all the sitting, missing games stuff. These people might have enough money to come to one game. And that might be the game they come to and you sitting out."

Edwards walked the walk. Edwards played in nearly every game of that Timberwolves season, the first of three straight seasons playing 79 games. No All-Star played more than Edwards, per Stathead tracking, and the fans loved it.

Edwards was a box-office hit and seemed invincible, the face that could stem the tide of load management.

And then in March of last season, his knee started barking. He looked limited against OKC in his 58th game and the medical team sidelined him. One pressing issue: he needed to play in seven of the 15 remaining games to qualify for postseason awards, which, until the OKC game, seemed easily attainable. His coach Chris Finch praised his Ironman courage and noted Edwards had played in 95% of his games in his career, "which is extremely rare."

But the game finally caught up to Edwards. He missed 11 of the team's next 14 games and hobbled through the worst postseason of his precocious career. He fell short of the 65 games needed for all-league awards and missed more time in the playoffs. The health problems have only continued. This season, after just four games, Edwards was shut down with issues in the same knee that he tried to play through last season. The team hopes he's back in two months after knee debridement surgery. This week, he was seen still on crutches. A league and its fans may wonder: Will he ever be the same? 

Maybe Edwards saw this coming. The same week he was shut down, Adidas unveiled its latest commercial captioned "65 games one way or another" for its flagship player. The timing of its publication sliced like a knife. In the spot, Edwards, arguably the NBA's most marketable American star and once-crusader against load management, is seemingly surrendering to the reality of the 82-game grind. In the pre-taped ad, Edwards is holding auditions for his stand-in when he misses time. "If I gotta sit out this season, you gotta act like me, you gotta talk like me, most importantly you gotta hoop like me," Edwards cracked.

Edwards' body couldn't hold up and now his shoe company is mocking the whole thing. But it's no laughing matter for the players, fans and the league's business.

Edwards just one face of latest injury crisis

Injuries have dominated headlines in the early going. Less than 10 games into the season, Edwards was one of nine star players — as defined by the league's Player Participation Policy of having been named to at least one All-Star or All-NBA team in the previous three seasons — who have already suffered a significant injury. You can add Curry to this list. 

The Oklahoma City Thunder, with dreams of being the league's next dynasty, have been decimated by the reality, with major injuries to stars Jalen Williams (broken fibula and dislocated ankle) and Chet Holmgren (knee), not to mention key player Cason Wallace, who is shelved indefinitely with a shoulder injury. Tyrese Haliburton, Jalen Duren and Kawhi Leonard are also injured on championship contenders.

The game is faster and more taxing than it was in previous generations. Steve Kerr told me during the 2025 playoffs that it's a young man's game, the sheer velocity making it tougher for vets in the playoffs. About a month after that, Haliburton snapped his Achilles in Game 7 of the NBA Finals. Even the young players aren't immune to the harsh demands of the sport.

In 2023, when the NBA rolled out its Player Participation Policy, the NBA commissioned a 57-page study on load management. It didn't find evidence that load management affected injury rates in either direction. (Science is hard.) One chart, though, told a clear story that demands wholesale reform: the average star missed 10.4 games a season in the 1980s, growing gradually to 10.6 games a season in the 1990s, 13.9 in the 2000s and 17.4 in the 2010s. From 2019-20 through 2022-23, however, that number jumped to 23.9. Last season, I ran the numbers and it hit 27.4, more than two and a half times the 1990s rate.

That's a lot of stars missing in action, and even more potential lifelong fans who are now looking elsewhere with their eyeballs and dollars. Fans waking up to find the news of another star getting hurt has become routine, even if, by my count, star injury rates are slightly down overall year over year. (Those Damian Lillard, Tyrese Haliburton, Kyrie Irving and Jayson Tatum DNPs last season added up quickly.) Even excluding last season's season-scrapping injuries, the overall trend line is unmistakable. 

So, how do we get back to the pre-2000 DNP rates? Small tweaks haven't worked. A 40-minute game doesn't address the biggest problem: the sport is too taxing for so many games with crosscountry travel. A 65-game season that rejuvenates fan trust and interest is the answer. We need to invest and protect the stars that make the NBA what it is. We need to think about Felipe.

No more Felipes

For the 76ers' back-to-back ending in Charlotte, what got me was seeing the kids in the stands, the ones who brought posters and chanted their favorite players' names only for the schedule to let them down. 

This happens all too often. In 2023, an Argentinean boy named Felipe flew over 4,000 miles to see Jimmy Butler play in Miami. TNT cameras showed the devastation when the kid dropped his poster in shock when he learned Butler wasn't playing. Butler was a late scratch with lower back tightness. (Butler felt terrible and met with the family the next day with merch.)

The NBA has a real opportunity to further invest in delivering to families and younger fans who build core memories at games. Studies show that lifelong sports fandom is typically inherited by family ties and most were hooked by age 14. The Felipe story went viral and he got taken care of, but I worry that most just go home and think twice about buying tickets next time, turning on their Nintendo Switch instead of the big game.

When I think about improving an already great league, a 65-game season that eliminates these zero-rest nights is key. Why am I targeting back-to-backs? The link to injuries is murky, but it's the clearest way to get stars on the floor, and that's what keeps fans coming back. I've shown that star players suit up for more than 90% of Cup games, higher than the regular-season norm. Part of that is the stakes, but part of it, I suspect, is the schedule-makers keeping Cup games off dreaded back-to-backs. In the playoffs, where there are no back-to-backs, stars don't sit for rest and play almost every game.

James and Embiid join a host of stars who have already missed the second night of a back-to-back this season. Curry, Luka Dončić, Paul George, Pascal Siakam and Kyrie Irving have all sat a zero-rest game in 2026-27. This season, stars have played in 73.5% of games on the second night of a back-to-back, compared with nearly 80% of all other games.

The product is also better without back-to-backs. Victor Wembanyama's Wilt impression last Wednesday — 52 points, 24 rebounds and 8 blocks — came on a day of rest. That's no fluke. Wembanyama is dunking 40% more when he isn't playing on the second night of a back-to-back, continuing last season's trend where, according to Stathead tracking, he dunked 25% more with at least one day of recovery. League-wide, dunks go up when players' bodies aren't run down on back-to-backs.

So with all that considered, here's my proposal.

Introducing: Must-See 65

Every team plays 65 games in the regular season. I'm calling it Must-See 65. The league and the players union agreed that 65 games makes a star's season count. Let's make it real with a 65-game schedule and let's make it must-see TV.

Say goodbye to the 82-game schedule and bring back appointment viewing. Continue to market the stars and deliver more on that promise. Restore trust among fans and make advertisers more confident with their investments. 

The most common rebuttal is money: critics claim that owners and players will never agree to give up that much revenue. But baseball's owners just proposed cutting eight games without cutting player salaries. Owners are warming up to the idea that fewer games can mean more valuable ones. NBA owners have a possible cushion, too: each stands to collect a reported $650 million or more in upcoming expansion fees. 

For players, the upside is health. Fewer games and no back-to-backs mean fewer nights playing banged up, and potentially longer careers, which can be worth millions in future earnings. 

With expansion on the horizon, the time is now. Ten months ago, I campaigned for a 58-game schedule as part of Adam Silver's New Year's Resolutions. But with expansion imminent, I wasn't thinking big enough. Two more teams unlock a new billion-dollar revenue stream in my Must-See 65 proposal. 

How it works

Let's get into it. Here are some key points of Must-See 65 that will help keep revenues neutral:

• With the expected expansion to Seattle and Las Vegas, the Emirates NBA Cup turns into a 32-team single-elimination tournament midseason, seeded by record. Capture some of the magical dust of March Madness, a tournament that reels in more than $1 billion dollars a year. (Before expansion, the top two teams receive a bye.)

• This year, the Emirates NBA Cup Championship Game will be played at Hinkle Fieldhouse in Indianapolis. Double down on that. Break the 32 teams into four regional sites in cities that have dreams of having an NBA team: Nashville, Louisville, Kansas City and Mexico City. You want an NBA team? Show us. With lots of money and fans, of course.

• Some schedule housekeeping: In the regular season, play each team twice — one home, one away — for 60 non-Cup regular-season games. With Seattle and Las Vegas added, each team skips one game against two non-conference opponents on an eight-year rotation basis. The Cup will take care of the remaining five games, with makeup games at regional sites for those who are eliminated. (Before expansion, the NBA can add two regular-season games to reach 65. Maybe package a rivalry mini-series of three intradivision games?) 

• Here's the best part: the winner of the 32-team tournament gets to decide their playoff opponent until the conference finals. Yes, that means if you win the NBA Cup, you're guaranteed a playoff spot. The Opponent Selection Show becomes a sponsored TV revenue driver.

Banning back-to-backs could be the NBA's version of the pitch clock in baseball: a fix that fans can feel immediately. Baseball's attendance has grown in three straight years since it was added and the fan base got younger. Packaged the right way, a new season format without back-to-backs could lead to a similar bump in eyeballs and youth engagement. No more need to wait until game day to see if the star is ruled out. No more sad Felipes.

Will fewer games raise ticket prices? Maybe. But tickets are already expensive and star absences can hurt the fan experience. Fans will pay more for Hamilton tickets if Lin-Manuel Miranda is on the bill and have a better chance of leaving happy.

The sleep-deprived Halloween game was notable for another reason. Fans in Charlotte saw a shorthanded Sixers team stumble its way through the game, eking out a victory in the closing minutes. Jaylen Brown was the only Sixer to dunk in the game. 

Two days later, with a day off, the Sixers' star-studded lineup of Tyrese Maxey, VJ Edgecombe, Brown, James and Embiid returned to the floor. With more recovery for its stars, the team put on a show in a home win against the Bulls. The dunk count that night? Nine. That's the NBA that fans pay to see.