Does the NBA "too rigorous" schedule really cause these injuries?

[iamgine]

In the 19-20 & 20-21 seasons, the top players are playing like 2000 minutes.

in 90-91 season, most of the top players are playing 3000+ minutes.

Sports medicine are much better too nowadays.

So, it seems the seasons are much less rigorous than ever. Or maybe players put on much more effort nowadays or something?

[FultzNationRISE]

It honestly might be the increased athleticism itself that's part of the problem.

You crash a lot harder drivin a porsche than a forklift.

You look at guys back in the day, they barely get any lift on their jumpers. And they don't change direction as abruptly. These kinds of things put a lot of stress on the body.

I'm just speculating ofc, but it wouldnt surprise me.

[90sgoat]

It's the shoes 100%.

I run and for the last year I had some basic Nikes with very little padding and a wide base.

I then swapped them for some cooler looking modern Nikes with a bunch of padding and a slimmer base.

Instantly I got feet pain and injuries.

Modern shoes are too slender, too much airsole nonsense, not wide enough and not enough ankle support.

[DoctorP]

These two seasons crashed together probably has something to do with it.

[Shooter]

It honestly might be the increased athleticism itself that's part of the problem.

You crash a lot harder drivin a porsche than a forklift.

You look at guys back in the day, they barely get any lift on their jumpers. And they don't change direction as abruptly. These kinds of things put a lot of stress on the body.

I'm just speculating ofc, but it wouldnt surprise me.

+1

[8Ball]

It honestly might be the increased athleticism itself that's part of the problem.

You crash a lot harder drivin a porsche than a forklift.

You look at guys back in the day, they barely get any lift on their jumpers. And they don't change direction as abruptly. These kinds of things put a lot of stress on the body.

I'm just speculating ofc, but it wouldnt surprise me.


Players today cut more, run more, more athletic = more injuries.

Lateral defence is more needed today than ever before, more stress on the joints.

[HylianNightmare]

Sooooooft

[King Kawhi]

Modern medicine has gotten better but athletes still need time for their body to recover. Imagine working out every single day without many breaks..eventually your body breaks down as it doesn't have the needed time to repair.

[tpols]

Modern medicine has gotten better but athletes still need time for their body to recover. Imagine working out every single day without many breaks..eventually your body breaks down as it doesn't have the needed time to repair.

Many players today load managed and take 5+ days off between games.

Players are simply softer today. In the past guys would play through injuries especially to win. Bird dam near crippled his back doing that. Almost put himself in a wheelchair.

Today they save themselves for the money and 100 million dollar contracts.

[iamgine]

Even pre pandemic in 2017-19, the top players only played like ~2500 minutes. That translates a whole 10-15 games less per season compared to back then.

[Bronbron23]

It honestly might be the increased athleticism itself that's part of the problem.

You crash a lot harder drivin a porsche than a forklift.

You look at guys back in the day, they barely get any lift on their jumpers. And they don't change direction as abruptly. These kinds of things put a lot of stress on the body.

I'm just speculating ofc, but it wouldnt surprise me.

Don't think it's has anything to do with increased athleticism. The guys who've got hurt aren't even all that athletic relative to past players so thay theory dosn't make sense.

Also the guys who are hurt this year Don't even jump that high when shooting so that also dosn't make sense.

Some experts believe it's all the specific training players do now even from a young age. Alot of these guys from junior high have only played and trained for basketball where as previous generations grow up playing everything. This is the only thing that makes sense to me because even the condensed season dosn't hold water otherwise the years where players play in the Olympics they would all be hurt the following season and that's never been the case.

[ImKobe]

No. Look at the 2011-12 lockout season. Shouldn't there have been a record-breaking injuries then, with B2B2B games? Celtics might have been the oldest team in the NBA, and they were a game away from the Finals, Spurs were close too with their aging core.

[getting_old]

It's the shoes 100%.

I run and for the last year I had some basic Nikes with very little padding and a wide base.

I then swapped them for some cooler looking modern Nikes with a bunch of padding and a slimmer base.

Instantly I got feet pain and injuries.

Modern shoes are too slender, too much airsole nonsense, not wide enough and not enough ankle support.



ski boots to me

i'd take a lower ankle sprain every day of the week over a high sprain or knee tear or bone fracture

players lose tensile strength as well over the time off, they will be back

just like MLB batters are a bit slow with all the time off, they will be back

[3ball]

Players in prior eras weren't working out like this at age 15:

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=TkvwYCUAqcU&t=03m30s


So it's the overtraining at a young age and also today's spacing makes defenders cover more ground... Those 2 factors imo.... Or today's players are just weak and brittle.. need less vegan... More steak

[FKAri]

Two factors:
- More athletic(brutal on the joints/ligaments)
- Rules encourage a playstyle reliant on explosiveness, change of direction and quickness(brutal on the joints/ligaments)

[90sgoat]

Players in prior eras weren't working out like this at age 15:

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=TkvwYCUAqcU&t=03m30s


So it's the overtraining at a young age and also today's spacing makes defenders cover more ground... Those 2 factors imo.... Or today's players are just weak and brittle.. need less vegan... More steak

More like roid abuse from a young age.

It puts more stress on tendons and ligament than they can carry.

Roiding is well known to give injuries

[ImKobe]

Two factors:
- More athletic(brutal on the joints/ligaments)
- Rules encourage a playstyle reliant on explosiveness, change of direction and quickness(brutal on the joints/ligaments)

Counter-argument is that they're playing less minutes and sitting out more games than players in past eras, and the sports' medicine is much more advanced. ACL and achilles injuries are no longer career-enders and players come back much quicker from certain injuries and in most cases make a full recovery. It's also a lot less physical because the offensive player has all the advantage to where anything can be called a foul and there's less contact with the 3PT spacing, every little swipe at the head is a flagrant foul & a potential ejection too, the players are more protected than ever.

[ImKobe]

load management causes more injuries than it saves. because then when these pampered p*ssies finally start pushing their bodies in the playoffs they're not used to it and they give out. theyre also not conditioned right. playing less means more fat/chubby players like lebron, Harden, jokic, embiid, doncic.. these guys need 82 game seasons like shaq needed to get into playiff shape


no way the Lakers 3 peat if shaq only plays 40 out of 60 games or some sh*t with a minutes restriction

Lakers stopped winning titles once Shaq stopped rehabbing in the off-season and came into the RS out of shape. We were doomed in '03 because Shaq just conveniently rehabbed during the RS, leaving Kobe to play more minutes and put more miles on his body in order to keep a top-heavy Lakers' squad competitive, he needed shoulder & knee surgery after that season.

[j3lademaster]

Many players today load managed and take 5+ days off between games.

Players are simply softer today. In the past guys would play through injuries especially to win. Bird dam near crippled his back doing that. Almost put himself in a wheelchair.

Today they save themselves for the money and 100 million dollar contracts.This. Players are taking more time off to get themselves right and sit out more due to smaller issues. I'm not saying I disagree with that practice, If I were worth half a billion dollars over the span of a career i'd do the same thing.

[BigShotBob]

A lot of players nowadays don't even stretch properly. Derrick Rose never stretched pre-game and look at where that got him. It's just improper recovery and since the players nowadays are allergic to pushing themselves to help condition their bodies to go beyond their limits, they break down and become brittle.

When I played college football we used to have two-a-days even on a game day. We'd have a workout early morning and drill, then play our game, then at night we'd have one more workout. That's completely unheard of now.

[bullettooth]

No, LeBron is just looking for excuses so his first round exit doesnt look as embarrassing. Dude's now throwing the league under the bus instead of his teammates.

[FKAri]

Counter-argument is that they're playing less minutes and sitting out more games than players in past eras, and the sports' medicine is much more advanced. ACL and achilles injuries are no longer career-enders and players come back much quicker from certain injuries and in most cases make a full recovery. It's also a lot less physical because the offensive player has all the advantage to where anything can be called a foul and there's less contact with the 3PT spacing, every little swipe at the head is a flagrant foul & a potential ejection too, the players are more protected than ever.

The game appears less physical but in terms of the joints and ligaments it's far more physical. They're running, jumping, stopping, and turning on a dime more than ever before. Yesteryear's game involved a lot more strength. Stronger means slower. Today's game is all about sacrificing strength for quickness because there's so much space to utilize it. You're not posting someone up and squeezing through small gaps with a dribble or drop step. Bigs are moving in ways where they're pushing their bodies to what's physically possible for a guy with a large frame to do. And scouts go looking for guys who push that limit further all the time.

[ImKobe]

The game appears less physical but in terms of the joints and ligaments it's far more physical. They're running, jumping, stopping, and turning on a dime more than ever before. Yesteryear's game involved a lot more strength. Stronger means slower. Today's game is all about sacrificing strength for quickness because there's so much space to utilize it. You're not posting someone up and squeezing through small gaps with a dribble or drop step. Bigs are moving in ways where they're pushing their bodies to what's physically possible for a guy with a large frame to do. And scouts go looking for guys who push that limit further all the time.

Fair points. To argue your point further, guys are playing more ball coming up through the AAU system, so they have more miles on their body before even playing in the league, and they come into the league at an earlier age and are asked to do more. Still, I don't see how the schedule this season is the cause of all these injuries. We've had shortened seasons with a condensed schedule before and it's never been this bad. Half the league basically got 8 months off between the COVID break and the start of the new season and 8 out of the 16 Playoff teams played what, 12-14 games total in the bubble?

[Duderonomy]

Doesn't help that coaches have been making tight playoffs rotations some teams only play 3 bench players.

[baudkarma]

It's the shoes 100%.

I run and for the last year I had some basic Nikes with very little padding and a wide base.

I then swapped them for some cooler looking modern Nikes with a bunch of padding and a slimmer base.

Instantly I got feet pain and injuries.

Modern shoes are too slender, too much airsole nonsense, not wide enough and not enough ankle support.

It's obviously not possible that you simply picked out the wrong pair of shoes. No instead Nike and the other major shoe companies, which are spending tons of money each year on R&D, are sending inferior shoes to these NBA players who they are paying tens of millions of dollars to. Because it really helps their sales when that same guys twists his ankle and misses a month or so.

[ImKobe]

false. shaq came in out of shape the very next year after winning his first title. he admitted it in kobe and shaqs 1 on 1 interview

He might have, but it wasn't anywhere near as bad as in '03, when he waited until the season started to get surgery and rehabbed "on company time", which led to the Lakers having a worse record & a tougher road to the Finals.

2001 Shaq was arguably better than the '00 version. He might not have worked as hard after the chip (as expected) but his numbers stayed virtually the same in both RS & POs, despite Kobe's increased scoring role. He didn't start falling off until he got fatter and didn't bother rehabbing in the off-season.