I have yet to watch a game this season and only watched highlights once. As for my waning interest in actually watching the NBA (as opposed to reading about it), yes, part of it would have to do with the fact that I've now been following the league for over 30 years. But I think there's other factors also, such as the proliferation of rigging and, damn, these f*cking injuries.
I'm not going to even bother listing all of the star players currently on the injured list because first of all, since the list is ever-changing, daily even, who has time to do the research? Secondly, this post isn't really about singling anybody out. How can you be mad at someone for being unable to fully perform yet willingly paid tens of millions of dollars? It's more about, oh sh*t, what has this league become? What's this f*cking fiasco?
WHY SO MANY INJURIES?
To fully understand this phenomenon requires the knowledge of a tenured NBA fan. For instance, you can look back on the 1990s and be like 'players have always faced injuries'. But if you were actually alive and a fan back in the those days, you would know it was nothing like now.
For instance, you usually didn't have to worry about a star player being injured during the playoffs. You could also more or less take for granted that dudes would be available throughout the bulk of season and if nothing else playable during the postseason. And no, I'm not talking about load management per se, you know, organizations and players gypping ticket-buying fans. I'm talking about, well, let me be frank. By the looks of things, the forefathers were healthier.
No, it wasn't as common back in those days for players to have bulging muscles. But I'm not referring to type of strength, being able to benchpress and that type of sh*t. I'm talking about endurance and durability, a higher degree of general all-around sturdiness.
As for why the current generation is weaker, that's not something I want to speculate on here. It is what it is. So the issue now has become, how does the NBA respond?
SOME OF THESE DUDES REALLY DONT NEED TO BE IN THIS LEAGUE
One theory I've recurrently expressed in this blog is that a lot of NBA players really don't belong in this type of league, and I say with a grain of salt. The argument is more like, some dudes may be really tall and athletic and/or skilled at basketball, but their physical makeup cannot endure 82+-game seasons, as I would presume most of our bodies couldn't. It sucks because it's hard, if not impossible to imagine the NBA without its perennially-injured stars.
Some of the biggest names in the league - Kyrie Irving, Joel Embiid, Ben Simmons and if I remember correctly AD - entered already injured. Some of these dudes could even spend a year or longer, getting paid millions of dollars to condition themselves or whatever TF they call it. 'Working yourself back from a knee injury is hella difficult'. Yeah, I would imagine. But so is, oh sh*t, I just coughed up like my electricity money to attend an NBA game, and the main attraction isn't even playing. He's tender yet valued, so the team has decided to 'pull the plug' on him tonight. And by the looks of things, he didn't bother to protest at all.
The NBA would benefit some players, like Luka Doncic, a lot more if the seasons were shorter. Some prove to be hot for about five years and then afterwards, oh sh*t, grab the crutch. The average length of an NBA career is less than five years. And I would presume that statistic has just about as much to do with injury as it does with dudes lacking skill. When less-popular players are injured, no one really cares. But as for the stars, they're in such high demand that many play long after they should've already retired.
BRAINTRUSTS IN A BIND
This is not an easy fix for braintrusts, as most glaringly exhibited by the Joel Embiid saga. Joel has become sort of the poster child for chronically-injured superstars. He's not even the best player in Philly anymore, yet he's being paid, oh sh*t, $50+mil(!) a season.
The company is breaking the bank on an employee who can't fully perform, who's out there doing some gay shit like water exercises or running on a treadmill instead of banging on the court. Then they wonder why everyone wants to be a professional athlete these days, why young men are out here destroying their bodies and the reputation of local franchises alike in the name of being a sports' star.
F*K THE MAVS
What inspired this post was recently reading an article on NBC Sports whereas, well, as you know, the Mavs recently traded Luka. Now, Dallas' primary star after his departure, Kyrie Irving, has found himself injured for the season. So the writer of that NBC article was like should the Mavs "pull the plug" on the season and rest AD. Davis, as noted earlier, has his own health issues, and why the Mavs' braintrust would believe that he and the equally-hospitalized Irving could form a winning tandem is a discussion for another day.
So basically, the argument is that with the Mavs' best player being traded and the subsequent main star injured for the season, should they even compete? And I was thinking like, what a slap in the face of the fans.
Niggas is out here with their average salaries, buying NBA tickets and subscribing to services and all types of sh*t, and now you're saying since a team's main star is injured, the other star on the squad should just rest for the season? What a crock of sh*t. The NBA being softer these days is in more ways than just physical.
I don't know if Dallas will go ahead and make that type of decision, so I'm not actually dissing them at the moment. But just the idea that such a option could be publicly entertained, even if only by the media, reveals how much weaker, from a grit and pride standpoint, the league has become.
CONCLUSION
I would say shorten the NBA season, but it doesn't look like that's going to happen anytime soon. And even if it did, some stars can't even go 20 straight games these days no matter what. So I don't have any solution to offer at the moment escape maybe establishing an alternative league where players with reduced playing time, would theoretically be less prone to injury.
This being professional sports, health always has and will be a major factor. But these days, the name of the game has not only become putting together a quality roster but moreso hoping that come crunch time, you'll have less major injuries to contend with than the opposition.
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