Health officials around the league are concerned how players’ bodies will react to a 72-game season after a reduced offseason, Baxter Holmes of ESPN reports.
Those concerns are ramped up due to travel, rather than playing all the games in one location, as the NBA did during the restart. The lack of travel allowed the players to recover more easily during the restart’s condensed schedule.
The league is expected to make adjustments in the schedule in order to reduce travel. Those adjustments could include playing the same opponent twice in the same city and playing more games against opponents in nearby markets.
The 71-day gap between the last game of the Finals and the projected December 22 start is the shortest offseason in the history of any major sports league, Holmes notes. That could affect how the two conference champions — the Lakers and Heat — approach the first month of the season.
The eight teams that didn’t participate in the restart could also be adversely affected. As unnamed Eastern Conference trainer told Holmes, “They haven’t played competitively since March. How are they (going to) react?”
In a normal offseason, players typically trickle into their team’s practice facility for a few weeks prior to the official start of a month-long training camp. That timeline will now be cut in half, though the NBA has allowed teams to open their facilities for informal workouts.
So wait… At the same time, they’re concerned about players that had too much rest AND about those who had too little rest???
Kind of the textbook definition of “can’t win for losing…”
Yeah, the league will be rough for a month or two, then the players will all find their legs and get up to speed by mid-season.
You don’t have to think too much on regular season. Everything will be fine after two weeks.
Do not play over 48 minutes on first 10 games.
An ACL tear never hurt anyone…
Lebron James – Father, Basketball Player, Activist, Health Official
He’s not expected to play until mid-late January.
Same goes for the other old guys like Chris Paul.
Too bad he didn’t sit out the Rocket series huh?
Hi I am a talent scout for Comedy Central network and wed like to give you an hour special based on your hilarious creative material. PM me. Dont ever stop dreaming or believing in yourself.
2019 draft class and 2020 draft (classes mainly affected due to covid)…
lets see how many of them them have 10 year (plus) careers.
Sillivin, keep track for us.
@ Baxter Holmes
Get another job…bloody click bait author…
Well this is a pandemic, we are all struggling to a certain extent to balance health and professional life. If players aren’t ready to play, let them sit out and let other players earn a paycheck. It’s not easy for anyone and everyone would love things to be different, but they’re not, that’s the way it is so everyone has to adapt.