Open Thread: NBA General Managers request 30-day training period before play resumes

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More delays in basketball than COVID-19.

The absence of basketball has hit us all. Look at what we are doing to fill the void – screening past championship games, watching NBA stars play video game versions of the sport, even a game of H-O-R-S-E.

But the return of basketball won’t be as immediate as fans hope once the nation is okay to resume. Not if the General Managers and trainers have any say.

“If you tell us two weeks in advance, and all we have is a two-week training camp to [get] guys back to work that have been out of work eight weeks, that’s a mess,” one NBA general manager said.

While it is true that NBA players are doing their best to keep in shape on their own, there is no guarantee that players will be game ready out of the box.

“You’ll have [players] from one extreme to the other,” said one athletic training staff official involved with numerous NBA players. “So you’ve sort of just got to go with the mindset, ‘No one’s been training how they should be [and] everyone’s very out of shape.’”

GMs and trainers for NBA teams are concerned about the timeline for resuming NBA basketball once the suspension due to coronavirus is lifted. As the article reports, they would like to see a month to workout their players once they regroup.

“I don’t know how we could have that luxury,” another East general manager said. “That would be great, but I would say if I had to push it, I would say 10 days to two weeks.”

So we may be in for a longer haul before we once again get to root for our favorite team. And as we’ve seen with many states, businesses, and schools, the line in the sand is not fixed and can be adjusted as new information is presented.

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Open Thread: NBA General Managers request 30-day training period before play resumes
Open Thread: NBA General Managers request 30-day training period before play resumes