The NBA’s PTO and vacation policies generally provide 10–15 days of paid time off each year. Paid Time Off is the NBA’s most significant perk, aside from healthcare, according to workers, with 100 percent claiming it is the most important benefit. The vast majority of employees receive the benefit, which can be used for illness, injury, or other personal reasons.
Vacation time in the NBA is calculated based on years of service. In 2010–11, all players were awarded 140 days of PTO after playing 500 regular season games over two seasons. Days are lost if you use them before they expire.
Workers who have been with their teams for five or more years receive an additional 30 days added to their PTO bank. So if Danny Granger had used all his available days, he would have had 165 days left when he suffered a knee injury in April 2014 that forced him to miss the rest of the season.
Players can also earn up to 20 more days by reaching various milestones during their career with their team. These include making the All-Star Game, winning a championship, and being selected for the Olympic Team. As of 2013, no one has yet to earn these extra days.
Finally, some teams allow their players to borrow days from others on their roster or through the PTO pool.
Additional days may be accrued based on hours worked, with a maximum of 30 days off after five years with the same team.
However, many players use their time off in ways that are not permitted by the league’s rules, such as working during their vacations or taking advantage of drug tests. Other practices that violate the spirit of the policy but are not explicitly prohibited include using part of one’s PTO to cover up injuries (for example, missing games because of a sprained ankle) or staying home from work or school to care for an ailing family member.
In addition to PTO, players receive six weeks of guaranteed salary at the beginning of each season. They are also eligible to receive additional pay if they play in all 82 games or if they win the Most Valuable Player award.
Players who have been selected to play in the All-Star Game or the Olympics tend to receive more time off than others; this is because they are usually excluded from playoff competition.
When all is said and done, an NBA player works 60–90 hours each week on average. On game day, the players often come early for a shootaround, then receive treatment for aches and pains before playing a game that lasts around 2.5–3 hours and is followed by approximately 60–90 minutes of postgame interviews and the like.
After games, the players meet with coaches in the locker room for 30–45 minutes to discuss tactics and plan for the next game. Then they have time to themselves before heading back to the hotel or training facility for more work. Some players take advantage of free time by going home or visiting other cities, while others return to the gym to continue their workouts. In total, an NBA player spends about 17 days per month in game action and about 93 days not playing at all.
An average NBA season consists of about 70 games played over 62 days; this works out to about 1 game every 3.4 days and about 5 hours of game play per day. The most common number of games played in a single season is 50 (2014-2015 season), with 72 being the most ever. A player goes into the 2014-2015 season having already played a record 90 games the previous year.
The longest game in NBA history was the 2004 Eastern Conference Finals between the Detroit Pistons and Miami Heat. It lasted five overtimes (the original ending at 11:49 am was canceled due to rain delays) before finally concluding at 12:30 pm.
The pros are at that level and beyond, especially with three times the games. Given that there is a game about every other night, there are 3.5 days remaining in the week. Assuming that every NBA player gets one day off every week, there are 2.5 days remaining in the week. If some players get two days off instead, then there are only 2 days left.
In reality, however, most players don’t get their days off until at least Thursday of each week, if not later. This means that there really are only between 1 and 2 days left in the week for most players.
The longest season in sports is also its least favorable to athletes. There are 20 weeks in the regular season, which averages out to one week of play per game. That’s not very much time to rest up before heading back into action.
In addition, most teams have several games either on back-to-backs or within 24 hours of each other, which doesn’t give players much time to rest before they have to go again.
Overall, NBA players have between 1 and 2 days left in each week during the regular season. However, given the length of the season and the amount of playing time played by most players, there aren’t many days where an athlete can truly rest up before a next game.
Teams in the NBA can benefit from 10-day contracts. They can use them to bring in players to help fill up their squad in the event of an injury. In rare situations, organizations will issue 10-day contracts to evaluate a player’s abilities before committing to a long-term commitment. These contracts don’t carry over into the next season and can only be used once.
The contract system was introduced by then Boston Celtics owner Harry Frazee for the 1958-59 season. The idea was that if a team was unable to play due to an injury to a key player, they could sign that player to a short contract without having them count against the cap. This allows a team to fill out its roster with cheap options while still giving itself time to look at more expensive alternatives should the injured player not work out.
Frazee originally intended to give these contracts out to just two players at a time, but after seeing how it helped the Celtics, he decided to make them available to all 30 teams. However, since most teams were using all of their available space on the roster, only two or three players could be signed through this route each season. The contract system was also used by some teams as a way to trade for or recruit new players. For example, the Philadelphia 76ers used this method to bring in Moses Malone and Walter Davis during the 1980s. Both players ended up helping the team win multiple championships.
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