Shouting Matches: How The Discussion About a Rushed Season Has Jumped the Shark

For two straight games in the Eastern Conference Finals, the orchestral waves of fanatical screams in Atlanta’s State Farm Arena suddenly stopped. It wasn’t a Khris Middleton silencer or a Giannis Antetokounmpo poster that caused these moments — but rather something much worse. The culprit was the hollow silence of uncertain injuries to two of the NBA’s most electric players in Trae Young and Giannis Antetokounmpo. The unavoidable cloud of this abnormal and hectic NBA schedule was where everyone turned to yell as soon as Antetokounmpo was writhing in pain after a leg injury forced him out for the rest of the game.

At this moment, I felt as though the discourse had lost all of its true meaning. We had gone from having grown-up discussions about the effects of wear and tear of a short turnaround and compressed schedule to yelling for the sake of it. You would think a soft tissue injury the game before was what had everyone on edge, but even that wasn’t the case. Instead, it was a freak accident where Trae Young stepped on the foot of a ref, which caused a bone bruise and sidelined him for game 4. The conversation and discourse had reached a level that wasn’t making much sense. It was boiling frustration at the number of stars we had lost due to injuries up to this point.

The list of players goes from Chris Paul playing a whole first-round series on one shoulder to Kawhi Leonard being out due to a knee sprain. In between those are Kyrie Irving and James Harden, sidelined in the Eastern Semifinals in a year with Finals written on it for Nets fans. But these injuries didn’t feature guys who dealt with a short turnaround or overextended themselves much during the regular season. James Harden and Kawhi Leonard only got to the Semifinals last year and rested throughout the regular season whenever possible. Harden dealt with lingering issues all season and never got right for a considerable stretch. In the case of Kyrie Irving, he stepped on an opponent’s foot which caused a gruesome ankle turn.

While it may seem right to tweet “Adam Silver jail” in those moments, we need to take a second to realize not everything has to fit a certain agenda. The anger we have at these injuries is valid. Injuries are the only part of sports that can take away any of the fun. They are the nasty pimple that continually appears on the face of an otherwise beautiful sport. But we need to realize that injuries are part of the partnership. Some injuries are simply unavoidable and would have occurred in any other season. It’s just more apparent because of all the actual examples we have of this weird season affecting players and teams.

Please don’t get me confused; I am not letting the league off the hook entirely for this season as a whole. There were plenty of avoidable injuries and COVID-related absences that influenced what teams looked like at the end of the regular season. The Celtics, Raptors, Lakers, Mavericks, and Heat were notable teams high on losses due to injuries and COVID-related issues. Three of those teams being conference finalists from last season who dealt with historically short turnarounds. This list also includes the Raptors, who never played a home game all season. Imagine playing a pandemic season where you never got to sleep in your own bed. This season was anything but typical and will be remembered by plenty of fanbases in a bad light.

There are many actual examples of this season being rushed and recklessly pushed through. We don’t need to look at freak occurrences during the playoffs to point this out for us. Our anger towards the injuries has led to screaming at the easiest target. Sometimes when we yell, we’re barely thinking — we’re just creating noise at that moment because we feel we have to. Directing our collective anger at an easy target always feels like the answer in these moments.

Some of that vitriol should be about the NBA not giving the Clippers a two-day break since June 2nd. The kind of fatigue and general slog of play that follows that kind of scheduling leads to bad basketball and even more injuries. We can be angry while being smart — but that’s not something fans are known for exactly.

We also need to be more thoughtful about our coverage of injuries. We can’t try to diagnose something as soon as it happens. Speculating on this sort of stuff can be ugly and messy. The same goes for people who cover the sport as media members. Everyone has a responsibility to be as respectful as possible towards a situation as delicate as injuries. I ask of you to think the next time you tweet, “that looks like an ACL/Achillies.” Unless you’re an actual doctor, it can come off pretty gross.

I hope the rest of these playoffs have no more of these series-altering injuries ahead of them. The asterisk conversation is always tiring, and no one wants to go through that even more than we already have. Maybe it’s too late, but there’s still time to salvage an otherwise brutal stretch of injuries. I hope Trae Young and Giannis Antetokounmpo can return and the Clippers avoid another tough break. I also hope the conversation around them can be more thoughtful and not reduced to the lowest common denominator.

We can hold Adam Silver and the Players Association accountable while also being rational. This season hasn’t been a normal one and won’t be looked back on as such. I’m not trying to say it should either. Some players have to play with long-term COVID side effects for the rest of their careers. That stain will never leave Silver and the NBA’s sleeve. They’ll have to wear that and many other responsibilities for the rest of their lives. We have to make sure the suitable stains are placed upon the correct people.