“That Becomes a Bigger Issue”: Health Officials Unhappy with NBA’s Recent Decision

After facing some resistance and careful consideration, the NBA 2020-21 season is set to begin on December 22. A decision to keep this season shot with 72 games was made. This is because the league wants to bring back their normal October-June schedule by the time the 2020-21 season comes.

Along with this, the 71-day offseason will be the shortest offseason in the history of NBA, NHL, NFL and MLB. However, the NBA’s health officials have some concerns regarding this schedule. They want to know how should they prepare players for a 72-game regular season and a training camp that begins on December 1.

This is most difficult for teams who haven’t played since March and for those who were in the Orlando Bubble till the end. Those who haven’t played need time to get back in shape and the Conference Final contenders need time to recuperate.

What are the major concerns of the NBA health experts?

According to Baxter Holmes from ESPN, one head athletic trainer of a Western Conference team stated, “It’s going to be especially challenging to not only get ready to play Dec. 22 or whatever, but to maintain that for a period of four or five months. This is going to be another period of unchartered territory. As unchartered as the [Orlando] bubble was [this summer], this is the bubble times three or four or five [because we’re] trying to extend it to that period of time with a minimal ramp-up.”

Another obstacle the health officials believe is travel. This is a factor that needed no consideration during the conclusion of the last season. However, it is certainly a concern now.

“I’d be more worried about travel, because we saw in the bubble, not having travel really helped guys recover,” said one official intimately involved with player health. “So I don’t know if it’s actually the amount of games [72], but it’s just the fact that you’re getting to 2 a.m. in the morning and you’re traveling now — that becomes a bigger issue.”

On the upside, ESPN also reported that league officials are confident that each player will get adequate time for preparation, no matter how long their offseason has been and how different their situations are.