Jake was going to shoot in May 1998 and stay until September 1998, where he would be almost 5 months and that would change the film's official schedule slightly, so Jake remembered Keanu Reeves was also injured and so was better than the movie started filming a little later.
The Wachowskis brothers could also start shooting some scenes in which Jake's character would not appear before, many things could be done so that Jake arriving almost 2 months after filming began was not a problem.
And Jake would still have to leave for a week or so if he really decided to join this year's NBA draft on June 24, 1998, at General Motors Place in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.
This showed how Jake's vacation would be a lot busier than the basketball season, after which he would have much more time with the NBA standstill that would make the basketball season begin only in 1999.