By non-stop basketball, I mean continually playing professional basketball with little or no offseason. I am obviously referring to a NBA season during an Olympic year. During this type of year, the best players don't receive a true offseason, instead going off to represent their country in the summer Olympics. It is a tough grind the next season for all who went, especially right after a lockout-shortened season in which there was more basketball days than days off. It is even tougher for those who played in the Finals. This year four players played in both the NBA Finals and the Olympics, and they are LeBron James, Kevin Durant, Russell Westbrook, and James Harden. Now that a new NBA season is right around the corner, their coaches will have to watch their workload.
James has already begun limiting himself in order to stay strong for the entire season. ESPN's Michael Wallace reported early this afternoon that the plan is to rest James during training camp and preseason. Training camp is for guys to get back into basketball shape after summer off, but James is already in basketball shape due to his time in London. Miami Heat head coach, Erik Spoelstra stated that the availability of certain players will vary from day-to-day, and James is included in that. James also might miss the first preseason game against Atlanta. This cautious attitude James and the Heat are taking is to prevent James from overworking himself and then breaking down at some point during the regular season. Back in his Cleveland days, James worked so hard to carry his team that by the time the playoffs rolled around he was spent. Haters will say that he choked during the playoffs as a Cav, but that is obviously not the case as in two seasons with the Heat he has made it to the Finals each year, winning one, with a good supporting cast.
Durant, Westbrook, and Harden are in a different boat than James. No plans of rest have been announced, or rumored, for the trio of stars from the Oklahoma City Thunder. Unlike James, Durant, Westbrook, and Harden are still in their early 20s. I don't think Thunder head coach Scott Brooks is even thinking about resting his three best players during training camp and the preseason. I think he is thinking the opposite because Durant, Harden, and Westbrook are unfinished products. Brooks loves the fact that his three guys got to take part in the Olympics and learn from the best in the game, and now he wants to work hard and continue to develop during camp. James is a complete player who is refining parts of his game, and so he can afford to miss time. The three leading men of the Thunder, however, all have their flaws and areas to work on, and need all the time they can get to improve themselves. Unfortunately, there is no time for rest in Oklahoma City. Should Thunder fans be worried of increased injury risk or ineffectiveness because of the team's go mentality? Nahh.
Sure technically speaking Kevin Durant, Russell Westbrook, and James Harden are susceptible to injury or tiredness if they take no breaks before the season after non-stop basketball that started the December before and ended in mid August. But then again everyone is susceptible to those things. Worrying about them would be like worrying if you were going to get fired tomorrow because that could happen too, technically speaking. As a fan, you want to see your team improve, and the only way for the team to do that is too push themselves. If Durant, Westbrook, and Harden walked into camp and sat on the sidelines and said "Nah, we're good. Did you not see us play in the Olympics?", what would the rest of the team think. Well they'd think those three think they are above practice and improvement, and you know how everyone feels about practice. If no one thought practicing was important, then we never would have gotten Allen Iverson's famous press conference that consisted of him rambling in disbelief about why he was fielding questions about practice. Bottom line is practice is very important. It builds team chemistry, it gives everyone a sense of accountability, and leads to player improvement. The Thunder are one of the younger teams in the league, as well, and so practice is even more important for the future of the team.
In conclusion, dealing with non-stop basketball differs with each player. You could have someone like LeBron James who is a veteran that has earned his stripes and deserves some of rest after guiding his team to a title and his country to a gold medal. You also have guys like the Thunder trio who are young players that have earned respect around the league yet still need to do more to get to the next level. You could also argue that they deserve some rest for leading their team to the Finals and helping their country capture gold, but the need to improve outweighs the need for rest. While James has done just about everything a pro basketball can do, Durant, Westbrook, and Harden have barely scratched the surface. You will hear the critics going after the Thunder trio now that LeBron has won his ring because he has finally silenced his critics. Non-stop basketball might be no big deal for the young guns of Oklahoma City, but now they have to carry that momentum into another season. The rested King just has to what he's done for a decade.
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