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[Saba Sports News] Joe Dumars, NBA’s Executive Vice President and Head of Basketball Operations, recently discussed the league’s offensive surge on “The Lowe Podcast,” emphasizing that the NBA values thrilling competition over changing scoring trends or refereeing styles.
He highlighted that the enjoyment of the game doesn’t hinge on the final score but on the quality of competition, illustrating this with a high-caliber game he witnessed between Denver and Boston.
“I don’t think people, fans, media really care what the score is. It doesn’t matter what the score is, people want to see great competition. I’ve said this in meetings internally several times. I saw one of the best games, I rode out to Boston a month or two ago, Denver at Boston. I think it was 100 to 99 or 101 to 100, one of the best games of the year and it had nothing to do with the score, it was just what was played there,” Dumars said.
“Or you can have 130 to 131, and from a league office standpoint we just want to see incredible competition on both sides of the ball. Offensive plays, incredible defensive plays. But there’s never been one second of, hey we need to do something, and we need to tell the referees to change, like that has absolutely never happened.”
Despite the noticeable shift towards higher-scoring games over the years—with the average score significantly rising from around 100 points a decade ago to 114.8 now—Dumars reassured that the NBA isn’t planning to alter scoring dynamics or officiating to adjust this trend.
He stressed the importance of maintaining a balance between offense and defense, acknowledging ongoing discussions about ensuring neither side gains an excessive advantage, but clarified that there’s no specific agenda in the league office to influence the nature of the game’s scoring.