Nine NBA Stars Sidelined in Week One
Coaches and players are debating the causes as a cluster of injuries sidelines key players across the league.
By Camila Wisniewski ·
The NBA season opened this week with a wave of injuries that left teams scrambling. Kevin Durant, sitting in the visitor's locker room at Fiserv Forum, offered no explanation for the sudden rash of injuries. 'I wish I knew, man. I wish I knew the science behind why all of these injuries are happening,' Durant said.
The list of unavailable players grew rapidly. Jalen Williams broke his fibula and dislocated his ankle. Cason Wallace tore his labrum. Anthony Edwards had arthroscopic knee surgery. Jaren Jackson Jr. tore his MCL. Paolo Banchero sprained his ankle. Tyrese Haliburton, Jalen Duren, and Jalen Suggs are dealing with hamstring or knee injuries, while Kawhi Leonard is out with knee swelling. Williams and Wallace are expected to miss most of the season.
These injuries followed issues from the preseason, including an Achilles tear for Ben Simmons and a hamstring strain for Kon Knueppel. Rockets coach Ime Udoka called the situation 'unprecedented' for this early in a season. 'It sucks to see this many people going out for this amount of time early in the season,' Udoka said.
Several coaches have offered reasons for the trend. Warriors coach Steve Kerr has long argued the 82-game schedule is too long. Pacers coach Rick Carlisle points to the speed of the game. Udoka and Bucks coach Taylor Jenkins noted their teams played only three preseason games. 'We only had three and some of our guys didn't play in all three of those, and so you can see some things creep up early,' Udoka said. Jenkins said league and team personnel are 'always studying … what we're doing in preseason and the offseason.'
Marques Johnson, a broadcaster and former Bucks forward, pointed to movements in today's game that were less common in his era. He cited the force required for hard Eurosteps and deceleration stops. 'The game is played differently and something's gotta give. The body can only take so much and the floor doesn't give,' Johnson said.
Fred VanVleet, president of the National Basketball Players Association, said injuries cannot be eliminated entirely. 'There's no prevention. You could look across every league in the world, every age group, this is where we are,' VanVleet said. He said he is working with the NBA on measures to support player availability.
VanVleet said the league should invest more in sports science. 'It's a multi-billion dollar industry, multi-billion dollar business, I just think we could pour some more resources and some more science, and I think the NBA should be the leading experts on some of these things,' he said. The NBA had not responded to a request for comment on potential injury-prevention measures as of Friday afternoon.
Source: CBS Sports
