Bill Simmons, the famous NBA analyst with The Ringer, recently called out NBA Commissioner Adam Silver for refusing to shorten the regular season amid rising concerns about player health.
The NBA is currently facing a significant injury crisis, with almost 15% of the league’s players sidelined recently (85 players listed out, according to sources). This stems from an intense schedule combined with players not addressing injuries for long enough, which has worsened over time.
While Adam Silver and other team owners justified the decision by highlighting its impact on league-wide revenue, Bill Simmons believes it stems from the commissioner’s and the team owners’ greed.
“Listen, I don’t know how many times I’ve talked about this on the pod, about the schedule. And about how, to me, this is inexcusable and semi-reprehensible. Because I think whoever is in charge of the league, which I guess is Adam Silver these days, doesn’t care,” Simmons said.
With the expansion teams expected to bring in over $16 billion in additional revenue for the league and team owners, Simmons compared how, despite getting an additional $500 million per year approximately, which doesn’t need to be shared with players, team owners are unwilling to reduce the number of games played in a season.
“At some point, you have to say, ‘Alright, you’re adding these five home games for everybody, but You’re ruining your players, and you’re making your sport worse, and you’re hurting careers, and you’re shortening careers.”
“And this should be a 70-game season. And if you talk to literally everybody who plays basketball, all of them would say the season needs to be shorter. And if you don’t do it at this point, I think it’s negligent. I really do. I think it’s like actual negligence and greed. And those are the two words,” Simmons strongly concluded.
It is hard to pinpoint the intense schedule as the reason for this injury crisis, considering the league has followed the same model for decades. Even Bill Simmons thought the shoes or untested technology might be making these injuries a recurring problem.
“Something’s fishy about all of it. It can’t just be the wear and tear in basketball being harder. I wonder if the technology, because guys love the ability to do Eurosteps and do all these other things, I wonder if the technology is actually working against them in some cases,” he added.
Many alternative resolutions have been discussed, like shortening NBA games from 48 minutes to 40 minutes. But the league remains adamant about not reducing the number of games played.
Moreover, sports injury expert Dr. Brian Sutterer has also theorized that a common problem across the league is “half-managed issues or injuries when players were younger.”
Ultimately, the NBA must balance maximizing revenue with protecting its players. Otherwise, its refusal to adapt could continue costing careers and diminishing the quality of basketball. It remains to be seen what Adam Silver decides to do to counter this crisis.