The first is health and safety, because there are too many uncertainties for players to leave for away games. For example, during the three consecutive championships, Jordan went to the Jazz away game, and suddenly suffered from food poisoning and high fever after eating pizza in the hotel. If the god of basketball hadn't made up his mind to fight the disease, there might not have been Jordan's six crowns dynasty in NBA history. Therefore, in order to avoid "deliberately" tampering with food, all away players will bring some lunch boxes to satisfy their hunger.
And every time a player flies to an away game, he has to stay on the plane for a long time. If it is limited to playing in the west and playing in the east, then there is no problem. Once a team in the western border area plays the Raptors, it's not just a matter of staying on the plane for a few hours. Moreover, most NBA teams have private jets and are not equipped with flight attendants to provide meals, so players can only bring their own lunch boxes to solve the meal problem in order to replenish energy on the plane.
And as professional players, their appetite is unimaginable to ordinary people. Eating five or six meals a day is just a routine operation, and the energy consumed by high-intensity competition training needs to be replenished in time, so NBA players will bring a lot of lunch boxes when they play away games. Of course, it's not just the players who bring lunch boxes on the plane when they play away games. Sometimes players will bring some food to the stadium for training during the home game, and even take a break to replenish their physical fitness during the game.
Secondly, the daily diet of NBA players is strictly controlled, so don't worry too much about playing at home. Team members are basically equipped with some nutritionists to make recipes. However, if it is an away game, players will fly away with the team, and nutritionists will hardly go away with the players, so it is more difficult for players to eat scientifically and healthily. The simplest and most effective way is to prepare lunch boxes in advance to prevent being carried away by hunger and eating a lot of "junk food".
It is worth mentioning that for players who go to away games, the team usually provides a meal subsidy of about 133 US dollars, so playing away games is a kind of work, which is no different from employees' business trips, so factors other than hotel and meal expenses need to be prepared in advance. It will cost a lot of money for such a team to play away for a season.