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

This is just the intro. The rest is in the link. It's a good read.
_________

"TO THE UNTRAINED EYE, Kristaps Porzingis looked fresh and rested as he walked into the Quicken Loans Arena for a late-December game in Cleveland. And for the first three quarters, he played that way.

But even if the 20-year-old rookie phenom looked good on the outside, on the inside his body was surely a mess. For the past three months, it had been systematically trashed by the NBA's silent killer: its grueling 82-game schedule. New York had just come off a three-games-in-four-nights stretch, which had come on the heels of a three-games-in-four-nights swing through Utah, Sacramento and Portland. Not surprisingly, Carmelo Anthony had rolled his ankle late in a game two nights earlier and was now out.

Sure enough, by the fourth quarter, the hormonal, mental and physical aftershock of the Knicks' schedule emerged into full view. With a minute left, Porzingis, who had scored 23 points in the first three quarters, had yet to score in the fourth and was visibly dragging. The Knicks trailed by four and needed a stop. And with the entire arena on its feet, LeBron James -- coming off a luxurious, if rare, two days of rest -- made his move. From the left corner, LeBron darted toward Porzingis before rising up for a sky-high one-handed slam. Instead of challenging James at the rim, Porzingis ducked away, like a matador. The Cavs would win by seven, with the Knicks mustering just 12 points in the fourth, tying their then-season low.

For the NBA, LeBron's slam was the stuff of dreams: A superstar soaring for a game-clinching dunk is the very thing that sells tickets, spikes ratings and launches Vines. But here's the thing: It almost never happens, and for reasons most people don't realize.

As it turns out, the fourth-quarter dunk is a rare phenomenon. From the 2005-06 season through 2014-15, there were nearly 5,000 fewer dunks in the fourth quarter compared with the first, a decline of 20 percent. In fact, dunks become rarer with each passing quarter: from an average of 1.98 in the first to 1.59 in the fourth. More fascinating: The overall frequency falls 24 percent when teams play on zero days' rest versus one day off, dropping from 5.5 dunks per game to 4.2. The upshot: It took a dog-tired Knicks team on the road against a fresh Cavs squad to produce that James highlight.

It's merely one of a hundred signals that NBA players are exhausted and sleep-deprived. In this case it was to the benefit of the highlight makers. But the evidence suggests that, over the course of a season, all players -- and fans -- end up losing.

[url]http://espn.go.com/nba/story/_/id/14757066/nba-schedule-breaking-players[/url]

Duh, everyone knows that playing so much basketball at such a high rate will break down anybody's body. These are great athletes making more money than most of us could even imagine. Players in the past had it much much worse and complained a lot less. These are men don't feel sorry for them. They are making really good money.

Funny how the "grueling" 82 game schedule only became a problem in recent years despite these athletes having all possible advantages/comforts as compared to decades ago. Plus there's like 9 days between playoff games now. Cry me a river.

The real men who played in the 80's/90's/00's didn't bitch about this stuff.

The dunk statistics are misleading because a bunch of factors explain the disparity between quarters, mainly better defense.

[QUOTE=OldSchoolBBall]Funny how the "grueling" 82 game schedule only became a problem in recent years despite these athletes having all possible advantages/comforts as compared to decades ago. Plus there's like 9 days between playoff games now. Cry me a river.

The real men who played in the 80's/90's/00's didn't bitch about this stuff.[/QUOTE]

It was definitely an issue back then, you just didn't hear about it as much because there was less media coverage and no social media.

I'd like to see you play 82 games, let alone 1.

I don't mind 82 games, anyone else mind? No? 82 games it is.




/thread

how about practice?

[QUOTE=Bosnian Sajo]I don't mind 82 games, anyone else mind? No? 82 games it is.




/thread[/QUOTE]

Ofcourse I mind it. There are many others that mind it too. But players don't want to play less games if it means a proportional decrease in earnings.

because these guys also have a fairly wild lifestyle when they are not on the court.

I have no sympathy. A pro athlete getting paid millions should handle playing 82 games easily.

Dirk Nowitzki, nearly 38 years old, playing over 31min a game, being chased through the hall court every night.

just a joke the fvcking mavs.

[QUOTE=OldSchoolBBall]Funny how the "grueling" 82 game schedule only became a problem in recent years despite these athletes having all possible advantages/comforts as compared to decades ago. Plus there's like 9 days between playoff games now. Cry me a river.

The real men who played in the 80's/90's/00's didn't bitch about this stuff.[/QUOTE]


This. All this.

[QUOTE=Relinquish]It was definitely an issue back then, you just didn't hear about it as much because there was less media coverage and no social media.

I'd like to see you play 82 games, let alone 1.[/QUOTE]


Bruh, we used to ball for FREE in the summertime. You didn't get a break until your team lost and the other squad had next. No time outs, no commercials, call your own fouls.

I WISH I coulda played in the NBA back then and got paid for it.

We [COLOR="White"][SIZE="1"]not [/SIZE][/COLOR]talkin about practice?!? Practice?

[QUOTE=OldSchoolBBall]

The real men who played in the 80's/90's/00's didn't bitch about this stuff.[/QUOTE]

And they're dropping dead on a monthly basis. Your heart can only take so much punishment.

[QUOTE=OldSchoolBBall]Funny how the "grueling" 82 game schedule only became a problem in recent years despite these athletes having all possible advantages/comforts as compared to decades ago. Plus there's like 9 days between playoff games now. Cry me a river.

The real men who played in the 80's/90's/00's didn't bitch about this stuff.[/QUOTE]
this, limit the defense, anti-hack rules, limit the number of games,
then the players will compete in the games through the Xbox without leaving home