Basketball isn’t regularly documented as a devastatingly physical sport, such as hockey, football, or rugby, but the regularity with which NBA games are played and the distance players run per game does take a significant physical toll. The 2014-2015 season witnessed an unprecedented number of players fall victim to musculoskeletal injuries. As a result, the National Basketball Players Association hired Joe Rogowski, a former strength and conditioning coach, to be its first Director of Sports Medicine and Research. Since the 2015-2016 NBA season has, in fact, seen a decline in injury, all signs point to the Players Association’s decision being off to a good start.
Get The Latest Sports Tech News In Your Inbox!
Even with the advances made from Rogowski doing his work, the NBA has taken things much further in its attempts to maximize the safety and the longevity of the careers of its stars. Most recently, the NBA and GE Healthcare partnered for the Sports Medicine and Orthopedics Collaboration, to which 70 proposals were submitted that “focused on the natural history, diagnosis, treatment and prevention of tendinopathy” (with tendinopathy generally being a disease of the tendon). Of the 70 proposals sent in to the NBA and GE, six were deemed winners, with each emphasizing different strategies and ideas for decreasing the tendinopathy epidemic in the NBA.
- La Trobe University (Dr. Jill Cook) – Patellar Tendon Pathology, Its Development and Relationship with Pain in Elite Athletes. Investigators from La Trobe University and the University of Newcastle in Australia, as well as Tulane University and the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill in the United States, propose a novel imaging method to investigate the relationship between pain and change in tendon structure – in both adult and adolescent athletes. This study will also evaluate how certain exercises can immediately impact pain, help avoid missed games, and make athletes’ tendons stronger.
- University of Calgary (Dr. W. Brent Edwards) – Towards the Real-time Monitoring of Tendon Strain and Cumulative Damage to Minimize the Risk of Patellar Tendinopathy. Using advanced imaging techniques and biomechanical measurements to quantify tendon properties, researchers from the University of Calgary, in collaboration with adidas and Robbins, Inc., will assess the influence of playing surfaces and footwear on the risk of patellar tendinopathy and develop a wearable technology to monitor tendon loading during play.
- University of Calgary (Dr. Carolyn Emery) – Prevention of Patellar and Achilles Tendinopathies in Youth Basketball. Dr. Emery and her team of experts aim to identify risk factors for patella and other tendon-related injuries in young players, explore self-monitoring and reporting programs, and assess the impact of a basketball-specific neuromuscular training program, all of which could have a long-term impact on young athletes and help them avoid premature exit from sport participation.
- University of Wisconsin-Madison (Dr. Kenneth Lee) – Platelet-Rich Plasma Therapy for Patellar Tendinopathy: A Randomized Controlled Trial Correlating Clinical, Biomechanical and Novel Imaging Biomarkers. Dr. Lee and his team of researchers aim to work with college basketball players to evaluate the effectiveness of a non-surgical intervention for treating patellar tendinopathy (also known as “jumper’s knee”) by comparing the use of concentrated platelets containing healing growth factors in a controlled study. They will also track the healing changes of the patellar tendon using new MRI and ultrasound imaging techniques.
- Hospital for Special Surgery (Dr. O. Kenechi Nwawka) – Prospective Longitudinal Assessment of Patellar Tendinopathy in Elite Basketball Players Using Quantitative Imaging with Correlation to Symptoms and Functional Analysis. Leveraging advanced medical imaging technology including ultrasound and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), researchers at New York’s Hospital for Special Surgery aim to characterize the changes in the patellar tendon over the course of a basketball season, thus providing predictive information to identify players at an increased risk of developing tendinopathy.
- Erasmus University Medical Center, Rotterdam (Dr. Edwin H.G. Oei) – Progressive Tendon-loading Exercise Therapy for Patellar Tendinopathy in Jumping Athletes: A Randomized Controlled Clinical Trial Evaluated with Advanced 3D Ultrashort Echo Time MRI. Researchers from Erasmus MC in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, with support from the Netherlands Basketball Federation, will use a novel MRI technique called ‘ultrashort echo time MRI’ to evaluate a new graduated, non-invasive exercise therapy for “jumper’s knee” that requires no specific equipment. Such an approach could result in increased tendon and muscle strength and pain relief.
In his two-plus years reigning over the NBA thus far, commissioner Adam Silver has made it a clear goal of his to ensure that the NBA is a safe place for all of its players. He quickly took care of issues with players dangerously fouling others, and the Sports Medicine and Orthopedics Collaboration shows that Silver and the rest of his execs do take injuries in the NBA very seriously. Which they absolutely should considering the players are their most valuable, and often expensive, assets.
But the NBA is not the first major sports organization to make serious strides to improve its overall health. With the Head Health Challenge, the NFL has been doing plenty to inch closer to help for its concussion issues. And in the sport of baseball, one can only hope that MLB will follow suit and do its due diligence in finding a solution to the Tommy John problem plaguing hard-throwing pitchers in 21st century baseball.
Professional sports are a perpetual staple of American society, and it pains the fans to see injuries so often shorten the seasons and careers of players. So seeing the NBA make scientifically-driven strides in the injury department and being willing to work with companies like GE is a great sign.