NBA’s 58-year-old Commissioner Adam Silver hasn’t yet paid the ultimate price for the ill-conceived, injury-prone season, giving the World Champions Los Angeles Lakers only a little over two months to recover from the wear-and-tear of a Covid-19 ravaged shortened season. Silver’s judgment was abysmal demanding that the totality of NBA players that played in the Orlando, Fl. Bubble ending Oct. 11, 2020, resume a new season only two months later Dec. 22, 2020. Silver’s decision based on pure economics to get the NBA back on a normal schedule cost incalculable pain-and-suffering to NBA athletes. Los Angeles Lakers’ 36-year-old power forward LeBron James watched his season go up in smoke March 20 with a severe high ankle sprain. James’ 28-year-old power forward teammate Anthony Davis sustained a serious Achilles/hamstring injury Feb. 15 and could not return without re-injury.
Silver’s decision to shorten the off-season from five-to-two-months didn’t give professional basketball players enough time to rehabilitate nagging injuries and go through the extensive training needed to prepare for the new season. Silver has simply ignored his egregious mistake with the lives of the world’s most highly paid professional athletes. Only given 71 days to recover from the grueling play off run in the Orlando Bubble wasn’t enough. Silver’s made many excuses but taken zero responsibility for abusing the NBA’s most precious resource, its most talented athletes. What was Silver thinking, or not thinking, when he decided to start a full 82-game season without giving his professional athletes enough time to recover and train in the off season? While injuries happen in every NBA season, the profusion of injuries in the 2020-2021 season was due to a lack of preparation.
LeBron spoke out June 15, telling the NBA he told them so. “They all didn’t wanna listen to me about the start of the season. I knew exactly what would happen. I only wanted to protect the well being of OUR GAME. These injuries isn’t just ‘PART OF THE GAME.” ‘It’s a lack of PURE RIM REST, rest before starting back up . . .” LeBron said, demanding answers from the NBA With the buck stopping with Silver, he must pay the price for causing the worst spate of NBA-player injuries in the history of the league. It’s not enough for Silver to pretend any longer that 30-year-old Clippers’ superstar power forward Kawai Leonard and now 26-year-old Milwaukee Buck’s power forward Giiannis Antetokounmpo injuries were not due to overuse injuries, exacerbated by the lack of a full preseason. Silver’s reluctance to come to grips with what he’s done in the 2020-2021 NBA season is astonishing.
Silver can no longer hide or make excuses for his decision to start the NBA season with an unprecedented 71 days off-season. Eight, possibly nine ALL STARS have missed Playoff game [most in league history],” LeBron said. LeBron tells it like it is, whether Silver and the NBA front office wants to listen. “This is the best time of the year for our league and fans but missing a ton of our fav players. It’s insane. If there’s one person that know about the body and how it works all year round it’s ME!” LeBron said, letting the NBA know that there’s no excuse from what Silver did to the NBA’s best players in the shortened off season. Silver’s lack of response to the undeniable reality of an injury-prone season speaks volumes about his guilt. NBA’s 36-year-old Players Assn. President Chris Paul has been mum so far, while dealing with his own nagging shoulder injury battling in the Western Conference Finals with the Clippers.
So far, Paul has been mum on the shortened 2020-2021 off season, leaving many of the NBA’s top players struggling with serious injuries. When the otherwise indestructible Anteotokounmpo went down with a hyper-extended knee in his Eastern Conference Finals game with Atlanta June 19, the NBA gasped, realizing that the dreaded injury bug just hit one of the NBA’s premier players. Yet where’s the accountability with Silver and the NBA? It’s not cruel-or-unusual for a league executive to accept responsibility for his incredibility bad decision that jeopardized the health, safety and welfare of its union-professional athletes. “I speak for the health of all our players and I hate to see this many injuries this time of the year. Sorry fans wish you guys were seeing all your fav guys right now,” LeBron said. LeBron has made the strongest case for consequences to Adam Silver.
NBA Commissioner Adam Silver must resign for his flagrantly irresponsible decision to shorten the NBA off-season, putting the leagues players into harm’s way. Silver’s all in on Covid-19 testing and protocols but he endangered the NBA’s most valuable asset, its players, forcing athletes back into action without a proper off season. Failing to give NBA athletes its normal six-month off-season robbed players of two-thirds of the necessary rest-and-recuperation time needed for proper preparation for a new season. Silver and his league executives knew the consequences of the shortened off- season but went head-first into a catastrophe for many of the NBA’s top athletes. No one in the sports media has held Silver’s feet to the fire for creating conditions that have harmed so many NBA athletes. Silver must accept full responsibility for the shortened off-season and submit his resignation.
