NBA Faces Crisis as Star Players Continue to Battle Injuries

SportsGrid

Watch NBA Faces Crisis as Star Players Continue to Battle Injuries - SportsGrid on Dailymotion

Transcript

00:00Meanwhile, just in the past week, NBA stars like Giannis, Victor Wembenyama,

00:04Ja Morant, and more have picked up injuries, sidelining them for a period of time,

00:08which has now led Warriors head coach Steve Kerr to say he's, quote,

00:11very concerned that the NBA's increased pace of play,

00:15combined with its condensed 82-game season, is leading to an increase in injuries.

00:19So let's bring in front office sports reporter Colin Salau for more.

00:22So, Colin, tell us a little bit more about what Steve Kerr is saying here.

00:25Yeah, so Steve Kerr was asked before the game against Orlando on Tuesday about, you know,

00:33the injuries because of the announcements of injuries, like you said, to Wembenyama and Giannis.

00:38And he said it was there's a dramatic there's been a, quote, dramatic increase in pace in recent years.

00:46And that's really attributing to these injuries, he believes.

00:49I mean, you don't have to look further than Steve Kerr for witnessing a soft tissue injury with Kevin Durant

00:56back when they were trying to win the championship in 2019, right?

01:00So it's Steve Kerr is someone that really is aware of this.

01:04And he's kind of saying that there's not a lot that can be done because the season is so long as well, right?

01:13He said that his medical staff is aware of the increased pace.

01:19His medical staff is also saying that that's a big issue, but not a lot can change unless the season is shortened.

01:27And that's not really going to change either because that is like the revenue of the league is contingent to those number of games.

01:35Yeah, I'm glad you mentioned all that because that's been the big question here is would the NBA even shorten the season?

01:41And he's arguing maybe it should go to 72 games, maybe chop off about 10 games here.

01:46But it's interesting the amount of stars that are getting injured.

01:48Yahoo Sports' Tom Habershow tweeted that nearly half of all NBA stars are currently injured

01:54and stars are missing twice as many games as they did just a season ago.

01:58I mean, if it gets to the point where, you know, all of a sudden this is impacting the media deals,

02:03where on NBC the other night they're supposed to have this big game between John Morant and the Grizzlies

02:08versus Wembe and the Spurs and neither can play, doesn't that then impact the product that the NBA is trying to highlight here?

02:16Yeah, I mean, Habershow brought up a great point.

02:19One of his stats was like NBA stars in the first month of the season are missing one in every three games

02:25compared to one in every nine in the past.

02:27I also brought up very early on in the year that I think it was like eight or nine NBA stars were injured

02:34before the season even started.

02:35And these are not just one-off injuries. These are a few weeks up to full seasons.

02:40To your point, I think it does really impact games.

02:44You know, Zach Lowe says it on his podcast all the time.

02:46He tells the story of how he was trying to tell his friends who aren't NBA fans

02:50that he was going to watch Jokic in New Orleans and then Jokic didn't play.

02:53And he's already one of the players that plays pretty significantly.

02:57So I think to your point, it does have an effect, but the NBA just signed this media deal.

03:04So, and that's an 11-year deal.

03:07So will that really affect them right now?

03:10I think it's somewhat of a medium to long-term issue that they just have to solve before that deal resets.

03:16Yeah.

03:23Yeah.

03:25Yeah.

Category

Transcript

Be the first to comment

Recommended