Mnogi NBA treneri, koji su zaduženi za trenažni proces i pripremu igrača, zadnjih nekoliko dana javljaju se s kritikama zbog glasina o povratku NBA košarkaša na parkete. Jedan od njih je slikovito u razgovoru za NBC kazao kako je nemoguće s nule odjednom voziti 100 na sat. Takvo stanje dovest će do ozljeda i još gorih posljedica.
Struka se slaže s tom tvrdnjom, a igrači su također na njihovoj strani: Chris Paul kazao je jučer za ESPN kako igrači neće htjeti igrati u slučaju naglog povratka na parkete:
“Naravno, mislim da ni liga to neće dopustiti, ali svejedno ako im bude pristup takav da kažu da imamo samo dva tjedna za pripremu, to se neće dogoditi. Imamo svojevrsni input jer mi smo oni koji nastupaju. To je najvažnije i nikako ne želimo povećati rizik od ozljeda” – zaključuje CP3, koji je već sedmu godinu šef udruženja NBA igrača.
Većina se slaže s Paulovom tvrdnjom jer je ipak riječ o 45o NBA igrača. Nemaju svi jednake uvjete kod kuće, nemaju svi privatne teretane i dvorane pa se neće moći u tako kratkom roku adekvatno pripremiti.
Chris Paul said Wednesday in a conference call (hat tip Royce Young of ESPN).
“I’m just letting you know — and I don’t think the league would do it anyway — but if they were like, ‘Hey, you got two weeks, and then we’re going,’ that’s not going to happen,” Paul, who is serving his seventh year as National Basketball Players Association president, said… “That’s not going to happen. Whatever the amount of time is, just know that players will have the input, the say-so, because we’re the ones playing. That comes first. We don’t ever want to put guys in a situation where their injury risk is higher than ever before…
“I get what we’re dealing with right now, a lot of hypotheticals, but I don’t know,” Paul said when asked how long players would need to get back in basketball shape. “This is the thing with having 450 players in the league and being in a situation like this, where some guys have access to weight rooms, some guys don’t. Some guys have access to facilities where they can train or do this or can run. That’s why, whatever happens — and I say this, and I mean this — we always go back to the players.”