Workload and travel demands of professional basketball staff: A season-long case study across the National Basketball Association and G League

Staff in high-performance sport face considerable workload challenges, including long and irregular hours, frequent travel, and demanding responsibilities. These demands reflect substantial professional time commitments within increasingly professionalized and resource-intensive environments, highlighting the need to understand how staff work and cope with demanding schedules. This study examined work hours, travel requirements, and schedule characteristics of staff from one National Basketball Association (NBA) team and one NBA G League team across a full year. A longitudinal, observational design captured preseason, competitive season, and off-season workloads across departments (e.g., coaching, medical, performance). Work hour estimates were derived from team schedules and structured interviews with 10 senior staff representing departments across both teams (7 NBA and 3 G League staff; age = 40.0 ± 8.0 [29–60] years, experience in NBA = 13.3 ± 7.2 [6–28] years). Travel data included number of trips, time zones crossed, hours traveled, and days away from home. Unconventional working hours and recovery time between consecutive days were also calculated. The NBA and G League preseason and competitive season phases spanned 28.6 and 25.5 weeks, respectively. During the competitive season, NBA games occurred every 2.1 ± 0.9 days and G League games every 2.8 ± 1.6 days, with an average of 15.1 ± 6.8 and 11.2 ± 6.0 days between ‘building closed’ days (i.e., non-work/travel days), respectively. NBA staff worked 44.2–66.7 h per week during the season and 37.1–49.1 in the off-season, with 41–49% of work occurring outside 09:00–17:00 in-season. G League staff worked 38.9–56.3 h weekly during the season. Staff spent 46% (NBA) and 42% (G League) of the competitive season away from home, averaging 9.7 ± 2.7 and 15.7 ± 6.4 travel hours per week away from home, respectively. NBA travel occurred mainly overnight on charter flights, while G League staff traveled mostly during the day via commercial flights or bus. These findings highlight prolonged hours, frequent travel, and limited recovery, underscoring the need for organizational strategies to optimize scheduling and support staff well-being.