The NBA should do something to ban all long road trips because it makes the schedule unbalanced and favors the team on the long road trip. It is an advantage to the Spurs schedule to go on the Rodeo trip. The Spurs have historically done well during the so called dreaded Rodeo Trip and there are reasons for that.
The long road trip gives the spurs a schedule advantage. The spurs usually bond together as a team and get used to all the road games in a row. Also the All Star Break breaks up the Rodeo trip so the team is not on the road the entire time. It also is an advantage for the spurs to have lots of long home stands/games during the last few weeks of the season while other teams are still on the grind traveling back and forth from home games to back on road games.
The uneven schedule should not be allowed and the NBA should have said no to the spurs along time ago. The rodeo needs to find another time or place or the spurs should have to play their home games during the rodeo elsewhere, like the Alamodome.