The NBA's Injury Problem takes Center Stage
As game 7 of the NBA Finals concluded, people were only talking about two things, the Thunder being NBA Champs, and the leagues Injury problem during this years playoffs and beyond.
As game 7 of the NBA finals began, Tyrese Haliburton had THAT LOOK. Moving with ultimate confidence and swagger, he buried 3 out of his first 4 three point attempts and yelled to the crowd. This was his moment. Until it wasn’t. Haliburton planted off his right foot for a drive and then BAM, moment over. Writhing in pain and pounding the floor, Haliburton instantly knew what it was. Haliburton had tore his Achilles, ending his night, and then his team’s night as they lost game 7, 103-91. Haliburton’s injury re-shined the spotlight on an often discussed, yet more and more common issue in the league today. Players are getting more injured than ever before, especially Achilles tears. This is despite load management becoming a constant theme of the NBA season, superstars on max contracts sitting out of games just for rest, yet seemingly leading to more injuries. Haliburton joins a list of 8 total players that have torn their Achilles just this season, including, bizarrely, two of his own teammates in Isiah Jackson and James Wiseman.
Adam Silver recently said in an interview at the 2025 NBA draft that the league is looking into the rise in injuries, specifically Achilles injuries, going as far to say that they are even using AI to determine the reason so many more players than ever before are going down. Silver suggested, like many others, that a possible reason might be how the next generation of athletes are being trained at such a young age and the amount of games young talents are playing. Young promising basketball athletes growing up will usually play many rigorous AAU games in a single day, training nearly every day. Additionally, athletes more than ever before are one sport athletes, meaning there’s less and less cross training for other sports. Once an athlete sees a future in whichever respective sport, they and their parents will usually push to quite all other sports and focus solely on that sport. This leads to certain muscles being vastly overworked as their is no break to play a different sport. Another factor is that the modern NBA game isn’t played how it was even just 20 years ago. The game is played at an incredible faster pace than years prior with the players putting a lot of miles and torque on their bodies. Then in the playoffs the defense becomes more physical and the players overall get less rest, with minutes going up and specifically get less days off in the 2nd round as opposed to the 1st, which is likely part of why Jayson Tatum and Aaron Gordon went down late in the 2nd round.
The most clear way the league could address the problem is by shortening the 82 game schedule down to around 66-70 games. The problem is the league office and owners would budge against that, worrying that the pool of money that comes from the 82-game schedule and its TV rights would shrink. With their being less games, players might not miss games often as they used too, but there’s no guarantee. The bottom line is the league has to do SOMETHING, because despite the latest technology, dieting, exercise, and science all being used to support these athletes bodies, they’re breaking down, even sadly on the biggest stage.