Following a season marred by high-profile injuries to the likes of Kevin Durant, Kobe Bryant and Dwight Howard, it is no wonder that the need for injury prevention is rising in the NBA.
The NBA regular season schedule is one of the most physically demanding in the world of sport. Although data shows that injury in the most recent season stayed relatively similar to the previous one, 2014-15 affected a higher-profile of player, which is concerning for NBA coaches and fans.
Ken Berger of CBS Sports revealed earlier last month that recently dismissed Chicago Bulls head coach Tom Thibodeau may have in fact protested against technology that would have the ability to track and monitor a player’s physical fitness and, therefore, assist coaching staff with how to better treat their players on the court.
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“He was basically challenging it, like, ‘Michael Jordan didn’t need that,’” [Brian Kopp, president of the sports tech company Catapult] said to Fox Sports.
In the modern era, with the relentless 82 game schedule followed by playoffs – where the standard is again pushed higher – there is definitely an opportunity for technology to have an impact with injury prevention.
The Golden State Warriors used SportVU cameras throughout their championship season where player movement and intensity is captured at 25 frames per second. This kind of technology, complemented by wearable movement tracking devices worn during training, present coaching staff with a detailed profile of each player and their fatigue levels.
Golden State’s director of athletic performance, Keke Lyles, told CBS Sports “a lot of non-contact injuries are fatigue-related. If we see big drops consistently over the last few games, and we know in practice they’ve dropped and they’re telling us they’re tired and sore and beat up, then we start painting a big picture: ‘Yeah, these guys are probably fatigued.’ When they’re fatigued, they’re at a higher risk.”
Catapult is an Australian company that produces biomechanical analysis technology to monitor athlete movement in a variety of sports. In the 2014-15 season, 12 NBA teams used Catapult’s tracking device, which fits comfortably in the lining of an athlete’s compression shirt. The device is the size of a computer mouse and weighs a little less than an ounce.
Other companies such as MuscleSound, Kitman Labs and Synergy Sports are adopting similar forms of technology, all aimed at tracking the movements of athletes to assess performance and prevent injury.
Throughout Tom Thibodeau’s 5 year coaching career at the Bulls he had been under scrutiny for overworking his players during the regular season. The Bulls have made the playoffs every season since Thibodeau was appointed and only once not securing home-court advantage for round one (2012-13), however, the team has not won a ring. It is because of this that Thibodeau has been heavily criticized for not planning long-term this could have ultimately been one major reason the Bulls fired him after losing in the second round of this year’s playoffs.
The most common injury in the NBA is the overuse injury, which has plagued Derrick Rose’s career ever since Thibodeau’s take-over. Rose has missed time due to injury every season since 2010-11 including playoffs. Joakim Noah, Jimmy Butler and Pau Gasol have also suffered injuries due to high regular season minutes.
While international companies like Catapult continue to innovate new ways to prevent injury and improve performance, NBA teams will need to take advantage in order to keep the game at its highest value. Every fan who purchases a ticket deserves to see the best players in the world on the court.