The NBA is increasingly realizing the importance of sleep .
The league is also playing a compressed schedule and frequently testing for coronavirus in order to keep revenue flowing amid this pandemic.
Though coronavirus cases and postponements have garnered significant attention , even standard procedure this season has caused major complications.
Hawks guard Bogdan Bogdanovic , in a Q&A with Chris Kirschner of The Athletic :
What would you say has been the most challenging part this season for you?
The circumstances in which we’re playing in. Keeping our mental health. You come off a back-to-back and you have to get tested in the morning. You don’t get enough sleep after the game. You sleep for four hours. There have been a lot of injuries this year, but it’s OK. We are all in this together and everyone is in the same situation. I just hope we will get out of this as soon as possible.
I didn’t realize you guys were sleeping that little some nights. Sleeping four hours and then doing a strenuous physical activity is hard.
Sometimes you have these back-to-back games, then you have to get tested early in the morning. You fly and you land at 1. You can get to sleep by 3 hopefully after you take a shower, unpack and your adrenaline goes down after playing a game. Then you have to get tested at 9, which means you have to wake up at 8. That’s the tough part of this.
Testing is essential to the NBA's operation . Without testing, the league wouldn't continue to generate the money that pays players' salaries. So, this is an acceptable tradeoff.
But that doesn't make a lack of sleep a non-issue.
Maybe it has contributed to the numerous blowouts and less-effective defense this season.
