The NBA has an injury problem — why stars are missing more games than ever
Yahoo Sports Daily hosts Caroline Fenton and Jason Fitz are joined by NBA contributing writer Tom Haberstroh to explain why so many more NBA stars are missing games this season. Watch the full episode of Yahoo Sports Daily on YouTube or YahooSports.TV .
Video Transcript
Tom Haberstroh tweeted news at Yahoo Sports.
NBA star players are missing twice as many games as they did in 2023, 2024.
Wendy John is now out tonight on NBC, that we, uh, knew.
It's gotten so bad that nearly half of all NBA stars are injured now.
We're going to bring in Tom to talk about it.
You can obviously check out the big number.
Uh, new episode drops later today.
Tom, we appreciate you hanging out with us.
It looks worse than ever.
Is it worse than ever?
Yeah, it is.
Uh, we've never seen anything like this.
NBA.
And, you know, typically in the NBA, we see a Couple of guys injured, you know, banged up at this point in the season.
Historically, about 80 to 90% of stars will be playing.
Right now, it's about 58%.
Why are we experiencing injuries at such a high clip this season?
Yeah, 213 games lost due to injury to NBA stars already this season.
We haven't even reached Thanksgiving, and we've already received 200+ games.
Two years ago, Carolina, that number was at 100, and that was even high.
OK?
So typically, we would see like 2,050 games lost Due to injury by Stars' back, you know, 20 years ago, 30 years ago, And now it's over 200 at this point.
So, somethings going on, right?
And its a, It's a big mystery around the league that medical, uh, Professionals, trainers, athletic trainers, coaches, players, Executives, they're all trying to solve this mystery of why it seems we can't keep These guys on the floor.
And what most of the conversation starts to circulate around is the pace of the Play.
You're playing super fast up and down floor.
Because teams with analytics have realized the best way to score is when youve got numbers in Transition.
And so, every team is trying to jump out in transition when they have a numbers advantage.
And that, over time, has created a culture, coaching culture.
Playing culture of trying to run as fast as you can all the time.
And not only that, the 3-point shot has expanded the geometry of the game that Biggs, Giannis, Miles Turner, they're trying to play 30 ft out, defensively guard all these Actions.
Not only are you running, uh, on these tracks Meets up and down the floor that OKC and Indiana established in last years NBA Finals.
But you're also asking some of these bigs to play like guards.
And skill-wise, it's excellent.
It's great theater.
It's great TV to see a seven-footer play like a guard.
But we have to ask ourselves: is the human body able to withstand this for eighty-two games?
