Article: Breaking down how the 82gm schedule breaks down a players body

[kshutts1]

I wanted to read the article before commenting.

Just a few thoughts:

1) The article specifically mentioned that the league is just now starting to do more research into how the schedule and sleep, etc, affects injuries and fatigue. I just wanted to point that out to everyone that says the "good old days" didn't complain about this, etc.

2) The article mentions some seemingly strong data, such as dunk stats, injury stats, and suggestions of little, to no, sleep. What they fail to do, however, is to offer any other possible suggestions as to why said issue may be taking place.

3) Similarly, the article mentioned increased games lost to injury by star players, from as early as 2009 as opposed to today. Yet, again, the article fails to mention any of the factors... what were the average MPG then and now? What was the average travel like, then and now? Etc.

I came away from the article thinking that it was well written, and provided a credible argument ON THE SURFACE... but any strong argumentative or research paper will provide more evidence, and back up their claims, as well as speaking to the possible other theories and they affect that may have had.

For instance, dunks go down as the game progresses and injuries increase as the game progresses... could it be that the game is just too long? Or that the players are fatigued as they play? That seems most logical, but it was not a point that was mentioned.

Also, lack of sleep was mentioned quite often. Yet the article never explained how an athlete that has, even worst case scenario of one game a day, fails to get enough sleep. Consider...
They play a 48 minute game in a, roughly, 150 minute span. There are 1440 minutes in a day. Travel from LA to NY takes 7 hours, which is 420 minutes. So after accounting for travel time and game time and the mentioned (in the article) 9 or 10 hours of sleep (600 minutes)... 1440 - 420 - 150 - 600 = 270 minutes left over, otherwise known as four and a half hours.
Now, that's an extreme example, as that individual slept 10 hours, flew cross country, and were active for all 150 minutes of the broadcast time of a game (lol). And they still had nearly 5 hours of down time in which they can eat, relax, use the restroom, do some light lifting, watch video...

So, article, please tell me how/why athletes are sleep deprived. If it's because their coaches regularly come into their rooms with air horns and wake them up military style, sure, I'll listen. But if it's because they're acting selfishly and foolishly, and choosing to live a party lifestyle during the season? Please don't expect me to cry any tears.

Present this data to the athletes and their coaches, and let them make, or not make, the necessary adjustments. But don't expect me to feel bad for someone that has the time to make it happen and chooses to not.

The one piece of data that I am not attempting to dismiss, however, is the hormone level piece. That's relatively telling. But it sounds as though that data goes back to the lack of sleep.

TL;DR -- The article presented a fine case, on the surface, but digging deeper, it's pretty much BS. Is the 82 game schedule, in 169 days (their data) ideal? Probably not. But it should be better now than in the 50's and 60's, etc, and athletes just need to make better life choices.

[jlip]

From an old post comparing the condensed 2012 lockout season's schedule to schedules from the 1960's:

There is considerable talk about how tough the condensed 66 game schedule is going to be on teams with the increased back to backs and even a few back to back to back sets. Understanding that, I decided to look at the schedules of teams during the 1960's to see how they compared to this season. Here are two examples.

1960 Boston Celtics- 75 total games

The schedule in Nov. and Dec. were somewhat normal, but things got seriously hectic in January. They played a total of 18 games in January including:
5 in a row from Jan. 1-5
3 in a row from Jan. 29-31
3 additional back to backs

In Feb. they played a total of 19 games including:
3 in a row from Feb. 5-7
4 in a row from Feb. 18-21
4 in a row from Fed. 23-26
3 additional back to backs

They played a total of 20 regular back to backs the entire season, most of which were in different cities.

1961 Philadelphia Warriors- 79 games
In Nov. they played a total of 17 games including:
4 in a row from Nov. 9-12
5 in a row from Nov. 15-19
4 in a row from Nov. 26-29
3 additional from back to backs

In Jan. they played a total of 17 games including:
4 in a row from Jan. 12-15
4 in a row from Jan 26-29
2 additional back to backs

In Feb. they played a total of 20 games including:
3 in a row from Feb. 1-3
4 in a row from Feb. 7-10
4 in a row from Feb. 15-18
3 in a row from Feb. 21-23
5 in a row from Feb. 25- Mar. 1

3 in a row from Mar. 3-5
3 in a row from Mar. 9-11
The played a total of 9 regular back to backs that season.

To put this in perspective, I don't think that any team this season will be playing 20 back to back sets. Also I know that no team is going to play more than 3 back to back to back sets. There will be no team playing 4 or 5 nights in a row at all. This kind of brings a new found respect to players such as Wilt and Russell who were playing these tough schedules while logging 42+ minutes per game, traveling coach instead of 1st class, and had no trainers on the road with them.

[HenryGarfunkle]

Lower it to 42 with at least 3 days between games.

These dudes shouldn't be forced to suffer like this.

[Relinquish]

BRAVO SWAGGA!!!!! One of the most comprehensive posts on the decline of the NBA post 1990!!!

There is literally NO TURNING back from this spiral unless the league takes away the 3 point line, puts in the old defensive rules (no blood no foul) and LITERALLY forces people to go back to basics from a young age.

The NBA has NO OTHER TRUMP CARD to compete with the NFL and MLB than to market individual stars, that's it!

MLB is hardly watched as is, especially by young people. Don't even get me started on the 162 game schedule they have...