As the NBA season has started, several notable players have gone down with significant injuries, prompting many in the NBA community to ask what's causing it. On the latest edition of the Mind the Game podcast, LeBron James and Steve Nash discussed what many see as a surge in NBA injuries.
When Steve Nash asked whether there are more injuries this season, James said it feels about the same as usual, then pointed to two high-profile names.
“It seems as much [as normal]. It does seem as much. The first two guys I think about, Hali, who was one of our dear friends on the show, worked so hard to get back after the Achilles injury two years ago. And now he’s dealing with injuries again that’s gonna keep him out for the foreseeable future, as they’re trying to figure out what the plan is with him. Anthony Edwards, Ant Man, out two-plus months they say with a knee.”
James linked the injuries to the pace of today’s game and said offseason training can’t prepare players for it.
“We go back to the pace and the [unclear] of the game right now, and I think it has a lot to do with it. There’s no way that you can simulate the way we’re playing in today’s game with offseason training. You can do as much as you can, but to jump right into full throttle of how we’re playing the game today, I think is very, very challenging. Very challenging.”
After Nash asked whether players should play more in the summer, James compared the situation to Olympic sprinters.
“I look at it like the correlation of, if I was a sprinter, you know, running the 100-meter yard dash or the 4×100 relay or whatever the case may be, and those guys, Usain Bolt and Justin Gatlin and all those guys, even go back to Michael Johnson in the ’90s. If you just think that they were just kinda like [running at 50 or 60%] during their practice rounds, and then the Olympics happened. Now the gun goes off, and they’re taking off full speed.”
He said that sudden jump in intensity puts players at risk of soft-tissue injuries.
“I feel like there’s gonna be some potential injury that happens. It’s the soft tissue. It’s the hamstring. It’s the quad. It’s the ankle. It’s the calf.”
James said he’d like to see players get more game-speed work and physical contact in the offseason.
“Yes, playing more in the offseason, actually getting up and running up and down and actually having physical contact. ’Cause a lot of times in the offseason there’s not much physical contact in workouts. You have your certain coaches, they give you one bump. They give you another bump maybe, but other than that, it’s not the same. ’Cause an offseason trainer, the last thing he wants to do is you step on his damn foot. It’s not his job.”
He also said the shorter preseason could be a factor, even though players disliked the longer version.
“I know we hated it as players when we’re in it, but the shortening of the preseason could be it as well. There’s really not many two-a-days anymore. We’ve touched on this. The amount of performance teams that’s now telling you guys to not play as much might be a little bit more detrimental to our players.”