Charlotte Hornets guard Malik Monk claimed that life on the road in the NBA is pretty boring.
“It’s boring. Boring is good, though,” the University of Kentucky product said during the an interview with CBS Sports. “You fly here, you get to the hotel, don’t do nothing until game time. I’m in my hotel room watching highlights, watching movies, stuff like that. It’s just boring. But in the summertime it’s fun because you get to do other stuff and you got a little bit of money, you can vacation, go to places. In season is boring, but that’s good, so you won’t be out getting in trouble, club life, stuff like that.”
This seems pretty hard to believe, but he’s actually right, for the most part. My experience in sports has always been that road trips aren’t what people think they are, for the most part. For example, I had to take a trip to Idaho with my the basketball team I worked with in college for an exhibition game against Idaho. It was my first major road trip for college basketball, and I was bored out of my mind within four hours. It was also Halloween weekend, and I was hundreds of miles away from campus. Not the ideal situation for an 18-year-old college guy.
Now imagine that happening for eight months in the NBA. Sure, you’re making lots of money, but boredom at the end of the day is still boredom. It’s not like the movies where players are making it rain every night at the strip club. That’s simply the truth. Most people probably read his comments and thought he was exaggerating. Trust me, he’s not.