Less than two weeks after the start of the 2026-27 NBA season, the league's leading stars have suffered an unprecedented number of serious injuries. In the locker room at Milwaukee's Fiserv Forum, Kevin Durant admitted that nobody can pinpoint the scientific cause of the wave of injuries. "I wish I knew, man. I wish I knew the science behind why all of these injuries are happening," he said. Since the season tipped off, Jalen Williams has fractured his fibula and dislocated his ankle, Cason Wallace has torn his labrum, Anthony Edwards has needed arthroscopic knee surgery and Jaren Jackson Jr. has torn knee ligaments. Paolo Banchero, meanwhile, has a severe ankle sprain, Tyrese Haliburton, Jalen Duren and Kon Knueppel have strained hamstrings, and Ben Simmons has ruptured his Achilles tendon. With the league at breaking point, Houston Rockets head coach Ime Udoka called the situation unprecedented: "It sucks to see this many people going out for this amount of time early in the season."
Golden State Warriors coach Steve Kerr has long called for the 82-game regular season to be cut, while Marques Johnson blames the modern Eurostep and sharp deceleration. "Back in the day, we didn't do the full-speed, hard Eurostep, the deceleration stop, that wasn't part of the game back then," Johnson explained. "There's no prevention... It's a multi-billion dollar industry, multi-billion dollar business, I just think we could pour some more resources and some more science," said Fred VanVleet, president of the National Basketball Players Association (NBPA). The players' union is working with the NBA on ways to protect player health, although the league office has yet to respond to questions.
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