The NBA sent data from a comprehensive study to its teams this week that showed no link between player load management and a reduced risk of injury.
It’s the result of independent research examining 10 years of NBA data, in which sports medicine executives took into account the schedule, number of games and regular season load players typically carry .
For years, some league officials have questioned whether players who rest constantly, even in back-to-back games, are at risk of serious injury.
This study seems to support this notion.
The tendency of players, and especially stars, to miss games without a legitimate injury excuse was embarrassing for the league as fans and especially media partners expressed concern and frustration. It was alarming for a league worried about its perception and business.
This pushed the league to develop the Player Participation Policyaimed at incentivizing healthy players to participate in competition and penalizing teams that have violated policy guidelines, as collectively agreed upon by the league and players’ union.
Those who participated in the study — Dr. John DiFiori, Dr. Christina Mack and Dr. Mackenzie Herzog — said other issues could be factors in the injuries. Such as: history of injuries, previous surgeries and age.
They also clarified that the report does not emphasize that load management is not working.
Dr. DiFiori added, “There needs to be a balance between rest and recovery. »
Dr. Mack, head of epidemiology and clinical evidence at IQVIA Injury Surveillance & Analytics, said they “did not see lower injury rates when players were resting.”
57-page report highlights fluctuation in star players missing games. Between the 1990s and today, the average number of games missed per season by star players has increased significantly. In the 90s it was 10.6 games. In the 2020s, it’s 23.9 games.
At some point, teams began beefing up their medical staff and performance staff, to the point where that department had more leverage than the coaching and management staff when it came to player participation.
Now, armed with the information and data collected by the league, these performance teams can make decisions that may or may not deviate from what has become the norm.
