As the summer begins, the National Basketball Association hits post season. This year seemed to fly by, especially giving the fact that they somehow were able to condense a 72 game schedule into four months. Now, as game 72 has come and passed, you cannot help but to think the NBA lockout, the reason the season was so condensed, may be having an effect on the players.
The NBA’s regular season is usually 82 games, played from late October until the end of April. This season, after the labor disputes, only 72 games were played starting on Christmas day and running until the end of April. With the league electing to take away just ten games and only two months, many teams played an astonishing amount of back-to-back games and even the occasional three days in a row games.
The condensed schedule led to less resting time and more wear-and-tear on bodies. Now, after round one of the playoffs is done, you can see the play of the players dissipating rapidly. Obviously the big stories of the playoffs thus far are the injuries Derrick Rose, Blake Griffin and Chris Paul suffered.
There has to be some consideration that the lack of training camp, lack of rest and the cramming of all those games into a short period could have led to the deterioration of these athletes’ knees. Chris Bosh did not play in game two for the Heat against the Pacers on Tuesday night. Andrew Bynum, who has the motivation (and attitude) of a two-year-old, looks absolutely drained. Bynum is not the only athlete that just looks exhausted. Round one should have seen an upset Lakers team, but star Danilo Gallinari of the Denver Nuggets looked like a marathon runner in mile 25 and was unable to lead his team to victory.
However, I will argue that many players may not have held their own during the lockout. It is obvious who took their training seriously during that time and who did not. Carmelo Anthony came into the season fat and out of shape. The Celtics and the Spurs, the two oldest teams in the league by a long shot, look fantastic right now. There is a reason that Anthony and Amare Stoudemaire will never make it past the first round of the playoffs.
I have nothing but respect for players that train their behinds off. I am pulling for the Spurs and Celtics to meet in the championship. Though they may not have Kobe Bryant or LeBron James, players that work harder than anyone else in the league, the Celtics and Spurs have the hardest working teams collectively. It is clear that veteran Ray Allen of the Celtics and Tim Duncan of the Spurs refused to let their teams stay stagnant during the break. As my great college coach quoted just the other day, “during [the off-season], players and coaches both will either continue to work and make huge leaps or become stagnant and lazy. Be the former.”
In my opinion, this is exactly why the Celtics and the Spurs will be the two teams to endure the rigorous season and be the ones to advance to the NBA championship.
