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Los Angeles Lakers Vs. Boston Celtics at TD Garden

Source: Boston Globe / Getty

The NBA Bubble was a huge success, but its got its downsides too.

The coronavirus delayed the season that usually ends in June by a few months. On March 11, the league suspended the season following Utah Jazz center Rudy Gobert testing positive. At the time, no one knew when it’d resume. Still, eventually, after taking over hotels at Disney World’s Florida campus, the seasons started up again in July and concluded on October 11 with the Los Angeles Lakers taking home the Larry O’Brien trophy. Now, NBA officials have pitched the idea of beginning the season on December 22– just in time for the famous Christmas games.

While fans are ready to see their favorites back on the hardwood floor, beginning the 2020-21 season, that quickly means the teams who participated in the bubble would barely have two months to rest their bodies. That’s just 71 days off, which is the shortest in major sports history. The NBA has knocked the season down to 72 games, but health officials are still worried about how players will physically respond to the change.

“I’d be more worried about travel, because we saw in the bubble, not having travel really helped guys recover,” said one official intimately involved with player health told ABC. “So I don’t know if it’s actually the amount of games [72], but it’s just the fact that you’re getting to 2 a.m. in the morning and you’re traveling now — that becomes a bigger issue.”

Even LeBron James seemed annoyed by the proposition.

Games occurred way more often in the bubble, but players were rid of one of the most arduous tasks of being a professional athlete– traveling so much.

“I’d be more worried about travel, because we saw in the bubble, not having travel really helped guys recover,” the source said. “So I don’t know if it’s actually the amount of games [72], but it’s just the fact that you’re getting to 2 a.m. in the morning and you’re traveling now — that becomes a bigger issue.”

At this rate, it might be easier to build the NBA Bubble 2.0 to ensure players’ health.

Too Soon?: NBA Health Officials Worried About 2020-21 Season Beginning In December  was originally published on cassiuslife.com