As last night’s Eastern Conference Finals opener between the Knicks and Pacers demonstrated, these NBA Playoffs have been a wild, fun ride. Underdogs have ruled the day, while game-tying and game-winning shots at the end of games have become commonplace. It hasn’t been all sunshine and rainbows, though, as seemingly not a day goes by without another NBA star being stricken with a serious injury. Jayson Tatum and Dame Lillard immediately come to mind due to their recent Achilles tears, as do Steph Curry and Aaron Gordon, each of whom strained their hamstrings in the second round.
Advertisement
The SportsRush spoke to Dr. Nirav Pandya, Professor of UCSF Orthopedic Surgery and Director of Sports Medicine at Benioff Children’s Hospital in California, to get his professional opinion on whether the evolution of the modern NBA — faster pace, increased spacing, more three-point shooting — contributed to a different type or frequency of injury compared to previous decades.
“The biggest factor is that the vast majority of NBA players who are coming into the league have played a lot more basketball already than players in the ’80s and ’90s,” Dr. Pandya said. “They are playing year round competitive basketball starting at ages 8 or 9 at the exclusion of other sports. This starts the deterioration process in their body much sooner so that they are set-up for more significant injuries when they enter the NBA.”
Dr. Pandya also pointed to the way the game is played today as being much harder on the body. “The game is played at a much faster pace and in a much more explosive fashion than in the past, which places more strain on soft tissues,” he said.
The stats back him up, as an average NBA game today features 10 more field goal attempts than one 20 years ago did. That fact was helped along by the rule change in 2018 that reset the shot clock to only 14 seconds on an offensive rebound. This kept teams from bleeding the clock and forced them to initiate their offense earlier.
Athletes are also continuing to push themselves to run faster and jump higher. Just watch Anthony Edwards or Ja Morant on any given play for proof. Even the average NBA player is much more athletic than one from 20 or 30 years ago. Other sports have suffered from this performance optimization too. We’ve even seen an epidemic of arm injuries in baseball as pitchers push their bodies past the breaking point in pursuit of more velocity and break.
Some players, including Aaron Gordon, have called out the NBA for packing too many postseason games into a short timeframe without allowing enough rest days to adequately recover. This has been exacerbated by the increasingly physical style of play that the referees have allowed. Gordon braved a Grade 2 hamstring strain to play in Game 7 of his Nuggets’ series against the Thunder, so his voice carries a lot of weight.
The NBA has made concessions in recent years in order to promote player safety, such as limiting the number of back-to-backs a team can play and eliminating all instances of teams playing four times in five nights. Still, more can and should be done to keep these athletes healthy and on the court.
