Colin Cowherd urges NBA to shorten playoffs with 5-game series

On the heels of Tyrese Haliburton’s Achilles injury, Colin Cowherd is urging the NBA to reshape its playoff format.

After straining his calf earlier in the series, Tyrese Haliburton was forced to exit Game 7 in the first quarter with a devastating Achilles injury, leaving the Indiana Pacers without their All-Star point guard as they lost to the Oklahoma City Thunder. Haliburton became the third notable player to suffer an Achilles injury during this year’s playoffs, with Jason Tatum and Damian Lillard being the other two.

Monday afternoon on Fox Sports Radio and FS1, Cowherd used the injuries as proof that the NBA needs to reduce its number of playoff games.

Colin Cowherd urges the NBA to have 5-game series in the playoffs after Tyrese Haliburton’s Achilles injury.

“The NBA is on notice. Shorten the playoffs…The oligarchs and the billionaires have a $76 billion contract coming. They can give a couple of games back.” pic.twitter.com/xkvX7HmbZx

— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) June 23, 2025

“The NBA is on notice. Shorten the playoffs,” Cowherd said. “They started two weeks before the draft. The NFL Draft! The NBA is faster, there’s more spacing, there’s way more movement. Players are just moving more. It’s twitchier. When you can see his Achilles flop, ugh, it’s gutting. An Achilles tear used to be what old guys did at 58 playing handball. It was an old guy injury. It wasn’t for 20-year-olds. That tells you everything.”

“The NBA has never been a stubborn league. Move off 7-game playoff series until you get to the Finals,” Cowherd continued. “College basketball in March gets bigger rating than the NBA often gets in the playoffs. Why? Urgency. Make the games matter. I’m not asking for one and done. But when you’re seeing eight injuries and three tears over the course of the season…You felt a little cheated yesterday.”

Despite being put “on notice,” the NBA is unlikely to take Cowherd up on his advice. Because the NBA may not be a stubborn league, but every league is stubborn when it comes to the money in their pockets. And that is why professional sports leagues are in the business of adding games, not eliminating them.

Cowherd, however, makes the point that even if more games is better business for the NBA, playing those games without Haliburton, Tatum and Lillard is bad for business.

“The oligarchs and the billionaires have a $76 billion contract coming,” Cowherd noted. “They can give a couple of games back.”

If the NBA is going to reduce anything in the name of player safety, it should be the regular season, not the playoffs when fan interest is at its highest. Players, coaches and fans almost unanimously agree 82 games is too long. It’s why load management is so prevalent. And it’s why the NBA’ Christmas Day showcase is often considered the league’s unofficial opening day. But even that seems unlikely.

Sure, technically, the billionaires can give a couple games back. But imagine the NBA, months before, it’s 11-year, $76 billion media rights deal with ESPN, NBC and Amazon tips off, trying to pitch everyone involved on eliminating playoff games. It’s inconceivable to even imagine that being a possibility.