Report: NBA trainers, GMs advise 1-month training camp before resuming play

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If the NBA ultimately gets the green light to resume its 2019-20 campaign, don't expect league play to begin immediately.

Athletic training staffers and general managers from across the Association believe players will need at least one month to physically prepare themselves, according to ESPN's Baxter Holmes.

"You've got some players that are privileged enough to be isolating in their luxury mansions with full gyms and (who) practically built their own Olympic training centers," an athletic training official told Holmes.

"And you've got some people that are isolating in their 1,200-square foot apartment or at their parents' house. That's the range of the 450 some odd players in the NBA. I think that to make those determinations, you can't make a determination on the guy that lives at his own private Olympic training center. You have to make the determination at the lowest common denominator."

All NBA teams closed their training facilities in the wake of the coronavirus.

Milwaukee Bucks superstar Giannis Antetokounmpo is among many players without access to a basketball hoop.

How much preparation time players are afforded will depend on how much more money the NBA is willing to lose, training staffers acknowledged. But the absence of a proper camp could put the players' health at risk.

"People forget how much these guys are actually getting treated every day (during the season)," a GM said. "Preventively treated, not to heal but to prevent injury. So that's been missing."