By Sammy Strobel
Assistant Sports Editor
The pandemic postponed the 2019-2020 NBA season, causing the season to last longer, so the offseason is now shortened.
Credit: NBA website
According to NBC sports, the average offseason for professional basketball players is about 27 weeks. This year, players are only given seven weeks to rehab, rest and spend time with loved ones. This is the shortest offseason in league history.
This news didn’t sit well with some players.
Lebron James just finished leading his team, the Los Angeles Lakers, to a title in October. In an interview with Barack Obama and Maverick Carter, James stated that he’d be cherry-picking the whole first half of the season. According to sportingcharts.com, in basketball and some other sports, one player who is the cherry picker does not play defense with the rest of the team but remains near the opponents’ net or goal.
Between his last NBA finals win and the start of training camp, James and his team will only have 51 days of offseason.
Despite the disagreements on this decision, the 72 game season will kick off on Dec. 22.