Given that sports teams follow the schedules provided by their respective league offices, there has been much debate in terms of a potential impact of differential rest intervals on
a team's productivity. In general, workers of an organization need rest in order to optimally perform. Rest can also reduce workers' fatigue and stress, which can have a positive impact on
worker performance and ultimately be a benefit to an organization. The same notion of rest is applicable to professional sport teams, as their abilities and performance are key to team
productivity. Because a team's schedule is controlled by a sport league or association that organizes sporting events, it is common for team managers and coaches to complain about
insufficient rest periods for their teams. Teams in the National Basketball Association (NBA) follow an unbalanced game schedule in terms of rest days and the length of a home stand/road
trip. The league does not prioritize each team's rest days when scheduling games. As a result, teams frequently play back-to-back games with little or no rest days, and when traveling play
multiple games in a row during a regular season. A potential problem with an unbalanced league schedule is that zero or a small number of rest days increase players' fatigue, which could
subsequently impair overall team productivity. It was unclear to what degree differential rest intervals impact team productivity in the NBA. This issue is important, because team
productivity is associated with the competitiveness within the league, which can influence team revenue derived from attendance, television rights deals, and other sources. Based on this
notion, I examined whether differential rest intervals and the length of a home stand/road trip impacted team productivity in the NBA. I tested three statistical models with three
dependent variables, in order to approach team productivity from diverse perspectives. The three dependent variables were team performance measures, win/loss, and margin of victory. To
operationalize the concept of rest in the NBA, I employed rest periods of each team. Two other measures of the concept of rest were also chosen: the length of a road trip and a home stand.
As indirect measures of the concept of rest intervals, these two factors are also important assuming that a long stay at home (on the road) may advantage (disadvantage) teams, because
travel is believed to increases players' fatigue. The NBA prioritizes a venue's availability when scheduling games, so some teams stay at home for multiple games whereas other teams have
to travel to play multiple games on the road. Thus, I attempted to gain insight as to how team productivity may have changed depending on a team's rest interval, length of a road trip, and
length of a home stand scheduled by the NBA. Rest intervals were only significant in relation to two performance metrics, field-goal percentage and steals, while a team's margin of victory
and probability of winning did not change with rest days. The non-significant impact of rest intervals on a team's productivity in relation to its game outcomes demonstrate that rest
intervals were not a key determinant of game outcomes in the NBA. The improvement in field-goal percentage and steals was too low to change game outcomes. In addition, the impact of the
length of a home stand and a road trip on team productivity were negligible, regardless of their statistical significance. These results indicate that the NBA's priority for building a
schedule—venue availability—has not been flawed in that no team was advantaged or disadvantaged by playing successive games at home or on the road. The empirical results of the current
study are supportive of NBA teams' and players' efforts to reduce the negative impact of no or short rest days on team productivity. I also found that travel factors such as the length of
a home stand and a road trip (elements thought to impact a home advantage) were not greatly influential to a team's wins. Based on the results of the current study, I provide directions
for future research with diverse approaches to the concepts of rest, fatigue, and productivity in sports. / A Dissertation submitted to the Department of Sport Management in partial fulfillment of the Doctor of Philosophy. / Fall Semester 2015. / October 1, 2015. / fatigue, NBA, productivity, rest, schedule / Includes bibliographical references. / Jeffrey D. James, Professor Co-Directing Dissertation; Ryan Rodenberg, Professor Co-Directing Dissertation; Daekwan Kim, University Representative;
Joshua Newman, Committee Member.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:fsu.edu/oai:fsu.digital.flvc.org:fsu_291387 |
| Contributors | Sung, Yoon Tae (authoraut), James, Jeffrey D. (Jeffrey Dalton) (professor co-directing dissertation), Rodenberg, Ryan M. (professor co-directing dissertation), Kim, Daekwan (university representative), Newman, Joshua I., 1976- (committee member), Florida State University (degree granting institution), College of Education (degree granting college), Department of Sport Management (degree granting department) |
| Publisher | Florida State University |
| Source Sets | Florida State University |
| Language | English, English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Text, text |
| Format | 1 online resource (160 pages), computer, application/pdf |
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