Distance Traveled by NBA Teams during a Season

Have you ever wondered how many miles teams/players travel during typical NBA season?
If you have… well, you can join this one-member club! ;-)

Because even though it probably doesn’t matter now (with private jets and great service provided to the players can it have any effect on their performance?) it’s a trivia which has made me curious for some time…

So to calculate average distance traveled by NBA teams during a typical season I used schedule from insidehoops.com, latitude and longitude of U.S. and Canadian Cities from infoplease.com and an algorithm converting it into distance in miles from meridianworlddata.com. Additionally, I wanted to include some information about long-ish journeys so based on distribution I set a bar at 800 miles.

Results for the last 2 years are…
1.344.475 miles traveled by all NBA Teams in 2010/11 [44816 miles per team] and
1.360.641 miles traveled by all NBA Teams in 2009/10 [45355 miles per team].
To put it in context, every team travels around the world 11,5 times per season… and it’s without playoffs!

Here’s a more detailed breakdown for each team [numbers are rounded to the integer]…

Team in 10/11	Total Miles Traveled	Per Game	# Over 800 Miles		Team in 09/10	Total Miles Traveled	Per Game	# Over 800 Miles
Miami	59454	725	42		Portland	57921	706	31
Portland	54870	669	29		Minnesota	55509	677	33
Houston	54447	664	37		Houston	52145	636	33
Minnesota	51833	632	34		Golden State	51384	627	23
New Orleans	50909	621	28		Orlando	49154	599	32
Oklahoma City	49568	604	35		Utah	49116	599	24
Orlando	49530	604	33		Miami	48153	587	28
San Antonio	48888	596	34		New Orleans	47778	583	27
Boston	48374	590	28		San Antonio	47662	581	30
Utah	47106	574	22		Boston	47268	576	26
LA Lakers	46116	562	25		Memphis	46986	573	27
Sacramento	44869	547	20		Oklahoma City	46925	572	27
Milwaukee	44409	542	21		Phoenix	46205	563	26
Dallas	43838	535	27		Dallas	46202	563	31
Atlanta	43542	531	12		Sacramento	46058	562	18
Memphis	43509	531	17		Denver	45084	550	32
Denver	43342	529	28		LA Clippers	44616	544	25
Phoenix	43239	527	22		LA Lakers	44297	540	23
Golden State	43078	525	16		Atlanta	44045	537	12
Charlotte	42910	523	13		Charlotte	42821	522	17
New York	42750	521	18		New York	42610	520	16
Washington	41828	510	19		Philadelphia	42073	513	20
LA Clippers	41750	509	21		Washington	42007	512	17
New Jersey	40481	494	16		Toronto	41137	502	16
Philadelphia	39399	480	19		Milwaukee	40100	489	16
Indiana	38910	475	18		Indiana	40042	488	17
Detroit	38818	473	16		Detroit	40015	488	17
Cleveland	36390	444	16		New Jersey	38339	468	13
Toronto	35232	430	12		Cleveland	37799	461	16
Chicago	35087	428	14		Chicago	37192	454	16

A couple of notes here…
1) Poor Blazers… not only they were hit by injury bug but also they became so lonely on the US map ;-) Without Seattle and Vancouver in the league they probably will be at the top for years…

2) Portland, Miami, Orlando and Minnesota are kind of obvious because they are on the edges and corners of United States… but what the hell is going on with Houston? As a third Texas’ team do they get the least desirable schedule?

3) Have you ever heard about east coast bias? Forget it, in NBA schedule there’s a midwestern bias! ;-)
But seriously speaking, it’s nice to have many teams around your city.

4) I think it’s interesting that Clippers and Lakers’ schedule doesn’t favor the latter team…

5) Conspiracy theory alert! Did Miami schedule get worse because of “The Decision”? ;-)

With all that said we have a nice fundament for comparison… to the schedule shortened by lockout:
[data on the left in sorted by average per game and data on the right is sorted by city’s name]

Team in 11/12	Total Miles Traveled	Per Game	# Over 800 Miles		Team in 11/12	Total Miles Traveled	Per Game	# Over 800 Miles
Orlando	46221	700	32		Atlanta	38744	587	16
Sacramento	44335	672	24		Boston	33617	509	20
Portland	43391	657	26		Charlotte	31184	472	11
Miami	43280	656	26		Chicago	30786	466	14
Utah	42836	649	23		Cleveland	28567	433	11
Minnesota	42362	642	25		Dallas	33427	506	21
LA Lakers	41697	632	24		Denver	37027	561	27
LA Clippers	41436	628	25		Detroit	25863	392	7
Golden State	39434	597	19		Golden State	39434	597	19
Houston	39256	595	27		Houston	39256	595	27
Memphis	39054	592	21		Indiana	31571	478	14
New Orleans	39044	592	20		LA Clippers	41436	628	25
Atlanta	38744	587	16		LA Lakers	41697	632	24
Denver	37027	561	27		Memphis	39054	592	21
Phoenix	36549	554	22		Miami	43280	656	26
Oklahoma City	34584	524	17		Milwaukee	33963	515	16
San Antonio	34515	523	20		Minnesota	42362	642	25
New York	34050	516	14		New Jersey	33211	503	11
Milwaukee	33963	515	16		New Orleans	39044	592	20
Boston	33617	509	20		New York	34050	516	14
Dallas	33427	506	21		Oklahoma City	34584	524	17
New Jersey	33211	503	11		Orlando	46221	700	32
Philadelphia	31962	484	15		Philadelphia	31962	484	15
Indiana	31571	478	14		Phoenix	36549	554	22
Charlotte	31184	472	11		Portland	43391	657	26
Chicago	30786	466	14		Sacramento	44335	672	24
Toronto	30754	466	14		San Antonio	34515	523	20
Washington	30158	457	11		Toronto	30754	466	14
Cleveland	28567	433	11		Utah	42836	649	23
Detroit	25863	392	7		Washington	30158	457	11

Kings and Magic are clearly the losers of this year’s schedule lottery ;-) Although I’m surprised that with less than usual games between conferences average travel distance didn’t change much…

P.S. If you are interested in a historical view of those traveled miles visit my next post titled:
Journey through Miles of NBA Travel History.