Kawhi Leonard, Ja Morant, Kevin Durant, Chet Holmgren, Zion Williamson, Tyrese Maxey, Khris Middleton, Joel Embiid, Paul George, Scottie Barnes, Paolo Banchero, DeJounte Murray, Aaron Gordon, Kristaps Porzingis.
Here is a sample of the NBA “stars” who are in the infirmary at the moment, or who have just come out. This night, Malik Monk and Damian Lillard joined this list, due to various injuries.
According to Yahoo! Sports, at this rate, NBA stars will miss more than 1,000 games this season, an increase of 24% compared to last season. By “stars”, the NBA refers to players who have been All-Stars or members of an All-NBA Team during the last three seasons.
In its regulations on player participation, the “Player Participation Policy”, the NBA lists 49, and after at least ten matches played by teams in the regular season, the “NBA stars” have accumulated 83 missed matches. Twenty players out of 49 have already missed at least one match. And elements like Chet Holmgren or Aaron Gordon, never All-Stars, are not among these players considered “stars”.
A degraded “NBA product”
This trend is general since Yahoo! Sports reveals that after three weeks of the regular season, specialist Jeff Stotts recorded 686 games missed due to injuries, compared to 507 in 2023 at the same time. That’s an increase of 35% in one year.
Of course, players like Joel Embiid, Kawhi Leonard or Paul George have been fragile for several seasons, and it is not a surprise to see them in the infirmary.
The problem is that there are more and more stars affected, even for short periods like Stephen Curry or Anthony Davis, and that it is the “NBA product” which is degraded. Which perhaps explains the declining audiences since the start of the season, whether on ESPN (-34% in one year) or TNT (-14%).
Ironic then that the “Player Participation Policy” was precisely put in place for broadcasters, in order to ensure them as many stars as possible on their airwaves when they broadcast posters.
