Keith Strudler: The Importance Of Rest

So last week I had the flu. I’m saying this mainly in the dim hopes of garnering sympathy from the listening audience. It also made me keenly aware of the importance of rest. When you have the flu, you pretty much live your life one long nap to the next, in-between which you change sweat soaked shirts and complain to anyone that’s close enough to hear. But no matter what you do, or what medication you take, or what faith healer you call, the only thing that’s going to make you better is rest.

So, as odd as it sounds, I completely understand where NBA superstars are coming from. They need their rest, even without the flu. And they’re taking it, with NBA athletes taking games off for recovery in record numbers. Not sitting out something specific, like a bruised knee or calf strain – even if they sometimes call it that – but sitting on the bench in street clothes to avoid the wear and tear of an 82 game NBA regular season.

This in itself makes lots of sense. Think about racing a 10K, or whatever it is you do that makes you want to take an ice bath. Then imagine you have to race that 10K 82 times in like six months, half the time in a different city around the country. And after those 82 10Ks are over, then you have another 20 or so 10Ks – we’ll call those the playoffs – and those are the races that really matter. So, if you could imagine yourself living a life as physically cruel as this, you would probably want to sit out a few fun runs, so maybe you could walk when it’s all over. And thinking pragmatically, you’d probably run a little faster at the end of the year if you rested a bit early on.

That’s what NBA athletes are doing. They’re sitting out the occasional ballgame – especially when it’s one on back-to-back nights, when they only get about 20 hours until they have lace it up again. And they’re resting in somewhat unprecedented levels. In fact, players are taking over three times as many sick days today than they did just a few years ago. You can say it’s coaches being smarter, athletes trying to have longer careers, or simply more power going to the players in the current collective bargaining. Which means LeBron James or Steph Curry will sit when they want to. And to be fair, the coaches are usually ahead of them, encouraging stars to get their rest before the playoff run, where they too are judged. Not a lot of coaches keep their jobs for being great in the regular season.

Problem is, the NBA isn’t really a sport. It’s an entertainment product. So what might be good for winning a nine month tournament is really bad for putting on a nightly show. Like when Cleveland rests James, Kyrie Erving, and Kevin love for a nationally televised game. Which happened not long after Golden State suited up a squad for national prime time that looked more like a men’s rec league. So if you paid $200 for a ticket for that game, which seems a bit on the low side, you basically paid to see Draymond Green sit on a bench wearing a custom fit suit.

NBA Commissioner Adam Silver has already sent a memo to team owners, although it’s worded about as strongly as 13 year old’s diary. It seems next year they may try to massage the rules a bit to make it easier for athletes to play more. That could include spreading out the season over a few more weeks, changing travel schedules, and who knows. What it won’t include is shortening the regular season, since every game you cut is a chunk of money you’d have to give back. So 82 is the starting point, like it or not.

It’s hard to find a right answer here, at least one the NBA would be willing to do. Ideally, I’d like to see players establish their vacation days before the season starts. It’s like any work calendar. You have put in for your days off in advance, just so someone’s there to run the show. That way no one game would feel like the Wednesday afternoon on Broadway with nothing but understudies. Or maybe games without marquis players could be priced differently – value games, you could say. They charge more when the best teams come to town. Why not less when it’s a bunch of no names?

It’s complicated, and an obvious byproduct of the star based NBA economy, where teams and wins and losses are secondary to star power. And in the end, it’s the same group that loses on the deal – the fans, that is, who simply want the right to be able to pay exorbitant dollars for a known commodity. Perhaps they should take a few nights off as well. If I learned one thing last week, we can all use some rest and recovery.

The views expressed by commentators are solely those of the authors. They do not necessarily reflect the views of this station or its management.