Don Buse was a Phoenix Suns preseason Nostra-Don-us

The Phoenix Suns and their NBA counterparts used to play an eight-game preseason schedule, which for most fans feels normal. But even that length was too long for some.

The NBA has shrunk the preseason schedule to an NFL-like length four games, the Phoenix Suns in particular opening up on October 8, vs the Minnesota Timberwolves, and ending just six days later vs the Denver Nuggets.

The length seems awfully short to most fans who grew up watching the NBA regularly scheduling an eight-game exhibition season, a slate that took up the better part of the month of October before opening the regular season late that month, or in early November.

However, while fans may have enjoyed it (I will never forget listening to the first preseason game of 1999 with the introduction of Penny Hardaway next to Jason Kidd and being ridiculously  excited), players haven’t always been fans; even back in an era in which professional leagues ran extended preseasons that lasted much longer than even younger fans are accustomed to:

In the 1950s and 60s, the NBA used to run a college-season worth of preseason games, scheduling upwards of 25 games, while the NFL used to make their players fight through a minimum of six games that did not count towards their regular season schedule.

In 1979, the Phoenix Suns had a seven-game preseason lineup, which happened to open against the Los Angeles Lakers, and rookie Magic Johnson (the Lakers won 119-111, behind Magic’s 17 points, 5 rebounds, and 5 assists – all off of the bench).

Prior to the game, Head Coach John MacLeod and point guard Don Buse were asked about the length of the preseason, and what it’s benefits and drawbacks were.

Needless to say, in an era in which coaches actually held serious sway over their roster, and players just had to suck it up (whatever “it” was) and deal with the harder life that was being a professional athlete at that time, Buse mentioned that the league’s current  length would actually be perfect for the athletes.

Noting that the exhibition games were “still better than practice” due to the ability to work out kinks against live opponents rather than teammates in an fan-less gym, he specifically pointed out that for him, “four or five would be enough.”

It may have taken 40 years, but maybe fans should have called Buse, “Nostra-Don-us.”

Of course Coach MacLeod specifically made mention to the fact that the “race for the fourth guard role is still even,” thus he was fine having a longer list of slightly-above-meaningless games on the September schedule.

Maybe modern pre-season scouting really has lessened the necessity to play quite so often – although something tells me that based on Ryan McDonough’s tenure as general manager of the Suns, he could have used a lot  more offseason scouting and preseason games to figure out what he had done.

While four preseason games might feel funny to many of us fans of the Phoenix Suns and the NBA, at least that shorter schedule will mean getting to the start of the regular season that much quicker – even at the detriment of a few of the early games as players continue to feel each other, and their new offensive and defensive systems, out.