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The Golden State Warriors are the latest NBA team to make the annual trip to China to play in a preseason game.
However, it's a trip that All-Star forward Draymond Green will not forget. The do-it-all forward told Sam Amick of USA TODAY Sports that he believes the trip hurt his dieting and overall health.
Article Continues Below“I mean at the end of the day, my overall health probably will take a step back,” Green told USA TODAY Sports about the effect of the trip. “Your conditioning, and eating the right things (are negatively affected). You head into the season, and you kind of want to tune your body up and eat healthy and this, that, and the other. So all those things that’s conducive to playing basketball take a hit.”
Chief among them, as Green sees it, the players’ health.
“It’s a huge problem,” Green told reporters during a group session about the risk. “You kind of take training camp and break it up. It’s not the norm, so I think it’s a humongous problem.
“You start to risk injury and all of those things, so we have a pretty professional team. Guys get their work in, but it’s still nothing like actual practicing and that tempo. It’s more a risk of injury than the season. We’ll figure it out over the season.”
There is a major break up in routine for the players on the trip as there is a required change in the way things are run. This could heavily impact how they prepare for the upcoming season due to the extensive travel needed to make the flight to China.
It may result in a bit of a slow start to the regular season as players continue to fine-tune their bodies and better condition themselves for the physical grind of an 82-game slate over the next several months. The preseason is an opportune time for that aspect of their health to be in order.
This will be something that only time will tell how much of an impact it will have on Draymond Green and the rest of his Warriors teammates.
