The NBA made rest a priority this season, eliminating four games in five nights and cutting back on the number of back-to-back games. Still, sleep sometime can be a challenge for players and staff moving from city to city.
To minimize the number of early-morning arrivals, Director of Sports Performance Shawn Windle started having the team spend the night in a city rather than flying to their next destination — as long as they didn’t play the very next day. The league requires that teams fly to their next city when playing two nights in a row.
You may find it hard to sleep after your favorite team wins, just imagine being a player.
And imagine being the player who makes the game-winning play, like Victor Oladipo has done often in the past week. Named Eastern Conference Player of the Week for the second time already this season on Monday, Oladipo said recently that the lingering adrenaline from a game doesn’t mess with his sleep pattern.
“I don’t sleep anyway so it doesn’t really matter,” he said last week, one day after hitting a decisive 3-pointer to help them past the Chicago Bulls, 98-96. He had already turned his attention to the next game.
After every game, Oladipo like to watch film. Tim Dather, the team’s video coordinator, loads up his 12.9-inch iPad Pro with numerous games and edits.
- All of the time Oladipo is on the floor from that night’s game. About 34 minutes per game.
- Every one of his shots, make or miss. More than 18 per game.
- The entire game.
- The previous game of their next opponent.
- And if they’ve played that opponent before, he wants that video too.
When at home, players typically go out to eat with friends or family. It seems like more often than not, several of the guys go out together, too. After a recent game, Oladipo asked Myles Turner what he was up to while dressing at his locker. The two planned to meet up in an hour.
Oladipo, who has more than 208,000 followers on Twitter, says he doesn’t get lost in his mentions after a big game either — like his career-high 47-point performance Sunday, an overtime win over Denver.
“Nah, I can’t,” he said. “Probably in college, and then that kind of died down a little bit. Now I don’t at all. I don’t really pay attention to that stuff. If anything I just keep scrolling just so I don’t have notifications anymore. I mean at the end of the day, it’s just one game. We just won one game.”
After the Cavaliers lost in Indy to the Pacers, 106-102, they didn’t arrive home in Cleveland until after 4:00 am plane delays — and they had a game that day.
Man o man what a night! Game ended at 9:30 and just now getting back home. 🤦🏾♂️. Another 1 tomorrow too. Let's start the process now! #SFG🚀
— LeBron James (@KingJames) December 9, 2017
Oladipo says sleeping after a big win isn’t an issue, but he was up well after 4:00 am Monday after turning in his best scoring performance of his career. Watching Home Alone.
How many hours does he try to get each night: “As many [hours] as my body wants me to get,” he said with a grin. “It just depends I guess. I always have the same amount of energy for some reason, I don’t know why.”
After winning his latest honor and with two games between days, perhaps Oladipo checked his mentions from verified followers – because he answered tweets from Chris Paul and Dwyane Wade.
thank you family I appreciate it!
— Victor Oladipo (@VicOladipo) December 11, 2017
thank you family.
— Victor Oladipo (@VicOladipo) December 12, 2017