Last week, the NBA issued an unusual press release. In response to a story in The Athletic connecting the league’s NBA Cup schedule to the rash of early-season soft tissue injuries—a story that was also published in print by its parent company, The New York Times—the league fired off a rare public rebuke. The article’s conclusions, the NBA said, are “not supported by data.” The league pointed out that the number of games played this season is roughly the same as last season, while injuries to star players were down by 25%. Any connections between games played and injuries, an NBA spokesman wrote, were “patently false.”
The story, clearly, struck a nerve. Well, a couple, really. For years, league officials have been sensitive to criticism of scheduling. The NBA has taken steps to reduce player workloads—slashing the number of back-to-backs, reducing miles traveled, introducing so-called “baseball series” where two teams play in the same city twice, etc.—but cramming 82 games into 174 days is grueling, more so with the pace of play increasing to record levels. The only way to really address the issue is to slash the number of games. And we know how that conversation ends.
