Last week, John Hollinger wondered in an article for The Athletic whether the crunch of the early-season schedule, which has been tweaked in recent years to designate several days in December exclusively for NBA Cup knockout games, was having a material impact on teams and leading to an uptick in soft-tissue injuries.
Nine days after that story was published, the NBA has responded via its official communications account on Twitter, referring to Hollinger’s suggestion as “inaccurate and misleading.”
“John Hollinger’s premise that the NBA Cup has led to a denser schedule resulting in more player injuries is simply not supported by the data,” league spokesperson Mike Bass said in a statement. “Hollinger wonders if ‘the league turned the early-season travel dial a little too high’ and posits that teams are facing ‘an unnaturally heavy schedule cycle.’ The reality is the NBA played roughly the same number of games through 42 days this season (308) as last season (307).
“Further, those numbers are consistent with pre-Cup years (308 games in 2022 and 313 games in 2021). The Cup has objectively not led to a denser league-wide schedule in the early part of the season.
“Hollinger additionally claims the NBA is seeing an ‘uptick in early-season soft-tissue injuries’ and that ‘the league keeps getting worse at keeping those stars healthy.’ Through the season’s first six weeks, the number of injuries forcing star players to miss games is the lowest in the past six seasons, down more than 25 percent year-over-year. While several star players have not played this season due to injuries sustained last season, the suggestion that any increase in games missed this season is related to the schedule’s first six weeks is patently misleading.”
While the NBA accused Hollinger of a “misleading” narrative, it’s worth noting that the league’s own statement doesn’t address all aspects of his story. Hollinger also pointed out that several teams have been repeatedly forced to play one-game home stands before going back on the road due in part to the need to accommodate Cup matchups. A simple analysis of games played through a certain number of days doesn’t tell us anything about potentially heavier travel schedules.
Additionally, while the NBA said that the number of injuries affecting stars are down this season, the league didn’t specifically cite data regarding the sort of soft-tissue injuries (affecting the calf, hamstring, quad, etc.) that Hollinger was referring to.
Either way, it’s unusual to see the NBA use its official PR platform to publish a lengthy counter-point to a specific article that most of its fans likely didn’t read when it was published (“Big win for the Streisand Effect today,” Hollinger quipped on Bluesky). The NBA’s response suggests the league is sensitive to criticism regarding to the NBA Cup and the way in which the schedule has been adjusted to fit the in-season tournament.
The NBA cup is likely the single stupidest thing ever created by any sports league. No one cares and is nothing other than a money grab by the NBA to sell ads for Emirates.
It also limits their ability to schedule interesting games when there’s no other major sports on bc they’re focusing on cuck games
Agreed. It feels like a game mode on a video game and not something a league would actually do
They are also all dictatorships with horrible civil rights histories.
At least UAE doesn’t bonesaw journalists….that we know of.
I hate the bright NBA Cup floor decals. The whole thing is so stupid. We are supposed to get excited by the prospect of NBA Players getting prize money!? If there is one thing the league could adopt from the big soccer leagues it would not be their in-season tournaments, but RELEGATION and promotion. How many years will Utah be allowed to skate along the bottom while they “rebuild”? I realize that relegation/promotion will never happen but the NBA Cup should go the way of that whacked our improved ball they unveiled that nobody asked for or wanted.
Silver and his banking buddies do-not care about your objections—they wake up in suits and think about revenue, revenue, and making more revenue. Without any creative brain cells, they were forced to steal NHL’s all star format. If you have a problem.. go to the merch store and buy something.
I wont watch games on red or blue floors ever. I want a discount on my league pass since the NBA decided to make so many games unwatchable. Also its obvious how bad the product is with so many back to backs, I dont care what their statement says.
You want to do a cup do it at the start of the season to kick off the season. It mess up the schedule big time like what the warriors had to play to start the season. It also caused more injuries with players playing back to back games. Not a hard decision to make having the tournament start off the season. Now the schedule is not so bad with back to backs. Was that so hard to come up with abetter solution??
The NBA will always be about making wealthy owners more wealthy. Players need to cut back on games in the next CBA or strike. I can live with losing an NBA season if the next ones don’t have nearly every game with injuries to major stars. Watching OKC beat up on the B-squad of the Suns was not good basketball.
It’s a league where all you need to win is have a healthy squad.
The NBA Cup is a failure.