Lee Winfield’s teammates can still remember him coming to their homes in his Volkswagen van. It was the signal of the start of another trip for the Buffalo Braves in the early 1970s, back when N.B.A. players flew with the general public, washed their own uniforms and endured bone-crushing schedules.

Before the Braves hit the road, Winfield, a point guard, would traverse the city to collect teammates as he drove to the airport. The Braves often flew Allegheny Airlines, a regional carrier that the players referred to as “Agony Airlines.” They folded their large frames into coach seats, which was the only option since there was no first class.

And getting out of Buffalo was the easy part of a road trip.

“By the third game in the third night in the third city, you wouldn’t even know what the score was,” Kenny Charles, a shooting guard, said in a telephone interview.

The league has evolved, of course. The new collective bargaining agreement that was tentatively reached last week between the N.B.A. and the National Basketball Players Association calls for a reduction in the number of times that teams play games on consecutive days — the dreaded back-to-backs.