On the other hand, it was perhaps the defining moment of the opening weeks of the season: Yet another injury to a star player, and this one a long-term absence that leaves the Thunder without a single healthy center.
Join the club, Chet. Not only have the opening weeks been marked by a rash of injuries, but the names impacted have been significant. Already, Kevin Durant, Zion Williamson, Ja Morant, Tyrese Maxey, Jaylen Brown, Stephen Curry, Paolo Banchero. Scottie Barnes, Dejounte Murray, Paul George and Khris Middleton have been shelved with multiple-game injuries. Kristaps Porziņģis, Joel Embiid and Kawhi Leonard haven’t taken the court at all three weeks into the season.
This, of course, is a continuing escalation of a growing issue over the past several years. Despite ever-more intensive and expensive efforts to improve player health and durability, the trend line on player availability has headed in the opposite direction.
Talk to sports science experts, and many will blame the game: As the pace-and-space era increasingly demands more of the athletes on the floor — witness the play above, for instance — sprains and strains become more prevalent. Add in a faster ramp-up from zero to 60 — there are only a few preseason games, and nobody takes them seriously anymore — and you get a bumpy takeoff into the regular season.
The league itself seems mystified about what to do about it. They championed a new player participation policy a year ago to theoretically make sure key players didn’t sit out national TV games or otherwise “load manage” themselves out of too many games. That seemed to work early in the season. By the end, however, it may have been a pyrrhic victory that took even more key players out of commission for the playoffs.
