The NBA will return to finish its season this month on July 30th. As we prepare for a return to the NBA season, we need to consider the NBA player’s mindset during the current COVID-19 pandemic. Our focus throughout this article is to understand how NBA players have been affected by COVID-19. Additionally, we will seek to provide insight as to how NBA players could cope with the uncertainties of their life and career. In early March, the NBA and sports world went into quarantine to stop the rapid spread of COVID-19. When the NBA announced the 30-day shutdown the league didn’t expect the United States to become the epicenter of the virus. Now, close to four months since the hiatus of the current NBA season, its players continue to deal with the normal highs and lows felt by most athletes around the world. NBA players and all of us across the world are dealing with the pandemic, which feels as if we have a part in an unreleased Michael Bay film named “90 Days Later.”

What we are all experiencing isn’t a Hollywood film; it’s real life. Due to COVID-19, for the first time in history, all sports abruptly suspended their seasons. Timing for season suspension wasn’t ideal since the NBA was only weeks away from the most exciting time of its season, the NBA playoffs. It’s the reality we are all facing; learning to cope with excess time we didn’t wish for in the middle of our spring. For NBA players it’s an intensified feeling because they were seven months in, out of a total nine, when the NBA season stopped. Each NBA player has their ideal jigsaw-puzzle portrait to put together, maybe one of pouring champagne on each other or of holding the Larry O’Brien trophy with teammates. As NBA players build their jigsaw-puzzle, they strive to compete every night to put the pieces together. Regardless of the team’s record after month seven of the season, the NBA player still seeks to align the right pieces for the long-term portrait goal of one day competing for a championship. But what happened in March to NBA players’ season, just as their jigsaw-puzzle was taking shape, was that the remaining pieces of the jigsaw-puzzle went missing with no possible way to fill the gaps until the pieces return. For now the basketball gods will return our basketball pieces on July 30th so we can, at least, figure out what this year’s jigsaw-puzzle portrait had in store for the NBA season and its players in the Orlando bubble.

“It will be hard to have any kind of closure if the NBA cancels the season.” -LeBron James

Effects to Mental Performance

To understand how NBA players are coping with COVID-19, we administered a six-question confidential survey. We contacted over 200 NBA players through emails and direct messages on social media and indicated that the results would serve for the purpose of this article. The survey used a five-point scale for the first five questions and one final open-ended question. Let’s review the results from the survey to provide us with a glimpse of how NBA players are coping with COVID-19.

1. Has COVID-19 negatively affected your ability to maintain optimal performance?

a. Scale: “Affected Performance, Slightly Affected Performance, Neither Affected nor Not Affected Performance, Slightly Not Affected Performance, & Has Not Affected Performance”

b. Result: The majority of NBA players selected “Affected Performance.” NBA players haven’t been in a competitive environment since early March. That’s four months without even playing the usual summer pick-up games with fellow NBA players. Performance is affected by the lack of a competitive atmosphere that could only be recreated in an NBA environment. NBA players normally have access to a private gym and court but, due the current situation, LeBron James can’t invite nine other NBA players to his court for a pick-up game.

2. How stressed have you been during COVID-19?

a. Scale: “Extremely Stressed, Moderately Stressed, Slightly Stressed, Neither Stressed nor Distressed, Slightly Calmed, Extremely Calm”

b. Result: Most NBA players selected to be “Extremely Calm.” This response is a sign of great coping mechanisms that have been developed through the countless years of no guarantees in being a member of an NBA roster. NBA players have a clear perspective on their controllable factors. NBA players understand there is nothing they can do about a global pandemic affecting their season.

3. Has COVID-19 had a negative impact on your mental well-being?

a. Scale: “Strongly Agree, Agree, Somewhat Agree, Neither Agree nor Disagree, Somewhat Disagree, Disagree, Strongly Disagree”

b. Result: “Disagree” was selected most by the NBA players. The “Disagree” selection hinted to a positive mental coping approach from the NBA players who participated in the survey. Research indicates the importance of professional athletes in having a strong support network: friends, family, peers, coaches, mentors, and staff. Having and maintaining a solid support network, the NBA player can better cope with their season being halted by COVID-19 and maintain a balanced mental well-being.

4. During this time, have you had the resources (mental health counselor, trainer, gym, etc.) to maintain a healthy mental well-being?

a. Scale: “Strongly Agree, Agree, Somewhat Agree, Neither Agree nor Disagree, Somewhat Disagree, Disagree, Strongly Disagree”

b. Result: Most NBA players selected “Somewhat Disagree,” since a majority selected that COVID-19 hasn’t negatively affected their mental well-being on question three. Question four responses from the NBA players are also dependent on the resources they would provide to themselves or their NBA team will provide for them. NBA players’ factors to connect or not to connect with available resources are dependent on the following five factors: NBA player’s location, home setting, experience with disruption, awareness of team available resources, and willingness to connect with team support staff.

5. What are some key pandemic affects you are most worried about in your career?

a. Response Options: “Lack of Training,” “Career Longevity,” “Safety of Team/Staff/Families,” “Uncertainty of Return to Play,” “Compensation,” and “Other”

b. Result: At the time, most NBA players selected “Uncertainty of Return to Play.” This selection is expected for NBA players coming from a controlled and competitive NBA environment setting. NBA players and coaching staff are accustomed to dictating how hard and long they will train every day. But now the control variable is removed from the NBA players’ daily setting and they could feel a sense of helplessness because of a lack of control surrounding when they will start the 2020–2021 season for those players who will not be participating in the bubble this month.

6. What have you been doing to cope with COVID-19 halting your season?

a. Scale: Open-ended question

b. Result: The majority of NBA players responded that they have been “maintaining fitness”, “connecting with friends and family”, and “researching business opportunities.” This is likely the first summer in their lives since childhood they have had the time to completely control their schedule and not be dictated by the grueling NBA schedule. NBA players are experiencing time affluent by taking the time to connect, learn, and develop opportunities for their future beyond basketball.

Coping with COVID-19

The following are three methods for coping with the uncertainties from COVID-19 and returning to play. All three methods are intuitive to implement and lead to mental performance benefits for any professional athlete. First, is developing a mindfulness practice focused on the process of gathering and sustaining attention throughout the day. NBA players at home will seek to find fillers for their free time that usually would be occupied by their NBA schedule. The NBA players should be encouraged to practice guided mindfulness meditation and train the mind to sustain awareness of the breath for ten minutes per day to start seeing benefits. After mindfulness meditation, it’s key to practice this awareness during walking, talking, eating, etc. The second method is negative visualization practice. Designate three minutes to intently visualize the worst outcome to the NBA season in vivid detail. As the NBA player negatively visualizes how the NBA season will unfold, they should then expand the visualization to include how their career could play out. They should seek to understand and identify the feelings attached to these negative visualizations. This visualization technique has an emphasis towards exploring the thoughts, emotions, and feelings attached to the worst-case scenario as a form of mental readiness and preparation.

Third, is implementing a daily training routine. A daily routine is the most applicable technique for NBA players who are dealing with the unresolved emotions of not being in competition right now. NBA players at home have changed their daily routine schedule to incorporate the intensity and energy that is necessary to maintain the strict NBA training and life-balance practice. The mentality for training should be to maintain the same level as experienced during a normal season. The mentality of working out with whatever is available is the NBA players’ training program for now. Since players are home, basketball life has become even more integrated into their personal life. One could previously switch between the two worlds of the NBA player and the at-home role without compromising the comfort of their own home. Warning, this is where issues arise. Since the NBA players are aware of the uncertainties in returning to play, the sense of at-home comfort begins to blend into the NBA players’ training environment. The resistance the NBA player feels to do more could be ignored and leads to the NBA player only doing the necessary (require exercise provided by the strength and conditioning staff from home) and halting performance improvement potential. If an NBA player wants to find new potential during extended time at-home, they are going to have to implement a detailed plan to execute individual growth.

Here is a 3-step process for NBA players towards developing effective daily training and life integration routine:

1. Select clear goals for your personal and professional career

2. Create a breakdown of goals into a one month, one week, and daily schedule

3. Review your schedule and goals at the end of the week. This should only take a couple of minutes to create and execute since NBA players already have a clear personal development as well as career performance goals

Moving Forward

On May 8th, the NBA started to allow teams to reopen facilities for players to attend voluntary workouts. Throughout May the majority of NBA teams reopened their facilities. As we prepare for a return to the season, we must keep in mind that this is going to be a long process. NBA players will need at least one month to get back into adequate NBA conditioning shape. Just as we saw in the Bundesliga (Germany Soccer League), there will be injuries along the way. We shouldn’t rush the NBA players into the season because of a timeline the NBA and owners are seeking to meet. We should remain aware that, even though NBA players want to finish their season, there are certain things in life we can’t force our way through, and that is a global pandemic.

There is likely going to be a second wave of COVID-19, which the leading world’s researchers and scientists have predicted could be stronger than the first wave. The NBA will need to have contingency plans in place for the numerous scenarios that could occur if basketball returns. It’s likely that NBA players, coaches, and staff will have an increased probability of contracting COVID-19 during the process of returning to play. The NBA will design a plan on how to mitigate the spread of the virus if it were to occur. As we move forward, we need to be patient with this process. We don’t know what will happen tomorrow, but we will practice in receiving each day with gratitude. We should be aware of the feelings of uncertainty and frustration that NBA players, coaches, staff, and fans will feel throughout the process. At the end of the day, an acceptance of the situation, guidelines, rules, and procedures being implemented will allow us to have a successful restart to the NBA season this month.

“You really think that people are going to be without their wives or their woman? … You really think they’re honoring a bubble for three months?”-Stephen A. Smith

Designs by Omar Figueroa & Saleena Beharry

Omar is a Director of Performance at Synergy Performance Consulting | VP of Operations at Fútbol Marketing Group | Program Coordinator at Texas A&M University. Omar is also a Certified Mental Performance Consultant (CMPC) through the Association of Applied Sport Psychology.