Do NBA Wives Travel with the Team?

With nearly half of all NBA games being played on the road, it can be particularly difficult for any NBA player to remain in touch with their family during the season.  Coupled with practices, team meetings, and individual training sessions, many NBA players have little to no additional time to spend with their families.

However, one simple way for an NBA player to be able to spend additional time with their wife and children is to simply have them travel alongside the team to various road game locations.  Below, we are going to look at just whether or not NBA wives travel with the team and why or why don’t some NBA wives opt to do so.

Where do NBA Players Travel During the Season?

The NBA is currently broken up into 6 separate and unique divisions.  In an effort to create a more compelling and equitable league, the NBA created divisions as a subclass within the conference system.  As such, within the Eastern and Western conferences, there are 3 additional divisions, divvied into 5 teams apiece.

Each team, regardless of division, will play a full 82 game schedule.  This schedule is divvied up as such:

• 4 games against the other 4 division opponents (4×4=16 games)
• 4 games against 6 out-of-division conference opponents (4×6=24 games)
• 3 games against the remaining 4 conference teams (3×4=12 games)
• 2 games against teams in the opposing conference (2×15=30 games)

Within this schedule, exactly 41 games will be played at a team’s home court and the remaining 41 games will be played at an opposing team’s court. 

Typically, when scheduling is set, playing at an opposing team’s stadium will consist of multiple back-to-back away games.  As a means to help assist in reducing travel and player fatigue, NBA players and teams will travel to multiple away games in one week, returning to their home court the following week.

As such, many NBA players will travel extensively during the regular season.  They will be expected to be prepared to travel to various states and cities for games and will be expected to be prepared to travel once more once the game has been played.

Who Pays for NBA Players Travel?

With so much expected travel, it would be unfair to expect for an individual player to pay for the travel, lodging, and accommodations to an away game.  Rather, the team is expected to pay for both travel, lodging, and accommodations for each individual player to any away game.

Typically, NBA team’s will either charter a bus or a private jet to accommodate all the players.  And before the start of the game, the away team will also charter an additional bus to transport the players from the hotel to the stadium.

Similarly, the team will pay for a hotel room stay for each player.  In order to provide each player with their own privacy, security, and time away from their teammates, each player will have their own hotel room and accommodations.

So, Do NBA Players’ Wives Travel and Stay with the Team?

As is the case with so many things in the NBA, it depends.  While many NBA players’ wives, fiancés, and girlfriends opt to travel with the team, an equal number opt to stay home and away from their significant other.  The reason for this is varied but typically comes down to the grueling schedule, difficult logistics, and frequent need for travel, which for many is simply unsustainable and difficult.

However, for NBA players’ wives, fiancés, or girlfriends who do opt to travel with the team, they will be expected to purchase and secure their own travel.  That is, the NBA team will not pay for an NBA players’ wife, fiancé, or girlfriend to travel with the team.

Rather, if an NBA players wife, fiancé, or girlfriend wishes to travel to away games with their significant other, they will need to secure and purchase their own travel accommodations.

The reason for this comes down, quite simply, to logistics.  An NBA team will simply find it too difficult to ensure each wife, fiancé, or girlfriend has proper accommodations and travel schedule to join the team for each home game.  Rather, if an NBA players wife, fiancé, or girlfriend wishes to travel with their significant other, they will need to do so on their own.

Why Don’t NBA Players’ Wives Travel with the Team More Often?

While the allure of such frequent travel can make nearly anyone jealous, travelling to and from multiple cities during the NBA season can be quite grueling and difficult.  NBA players typically remain in any one city for less than 24-hours, typically simply travelling to a city for the game before travelling to the next one.

As such, for NBA players’ wives, fiancés, and girlfriends, such travel may be prohibitively difficult, expensive, and unnecessary.  Similarly, for many of these wives, fiancés, and girlfriends, such frequent travel would preclude them from their own responsibilities, jobs, and work that they have at home.

In addition, for many NBA players with young children, such frequent travel would be difficult on the kids and would remove them from classes and additional extracurricular activities which they are signed up for.  As such, most NBA players’ wives, fiancés, and girlfriends will opt to not travel with the team to away games.

Where do NBA Players’ Wives and Family Sit at an Away Game?

While, for many of us average folks, getting courtside or in stadium tickets can be difficult and prohibitively expensive, this typically isn’t an issue for an NBA players wife, fiancé, girlfriend, or family member.  Rather, each NBA player is allotted a number of tickets to the game which they can provide to their wife, girlfriend, fiancé, or family-member.

These seats, typically dubbed “wives and family tickets” are typically allocated and secured for members of the players family.  The seats are typically close to the court and allow for advantageous views of the players and the game.