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"He's the man," Thunder head coach Mark Daigneault said of Horford. "We had all of these young players and it was during Covid, so the season started in December. We had all of these trades right before the season. It was just a very disruptive environment in a lot of ways. A cynical person could've found a lot of things to complain about, and he was never cynical. Ever. He was always focused on solutions. He's about as respected of a teammate and a person to coach as you could find."
Michael Scotto: James Harden on his Brooklyn Nets tenure: “Some great memories. We had an opportunity to do something special. Me personally, I was injured. That was like the first time in my entire career that I wasn’t able to stay on the court and be effective like I can be and like I am. In that part, it was a little frustrating, but some great experiences for those two years. Obviously, it was Covid, so the world was in a crisis, but this organization has helped me and I appreciate them.”
James Harden on his Brooklyn Nets tenure: “Some great memories. We had an opportunity to do something special. Me personally, I was injured. That was like the first time in my entire career that I wasn’t able to stay on the court and be effective like I can be and like I am. In… pic.twitter.com/bm7j8Zxg5b
— Michael Scotto (@MikeAScotto) January 10, 2026
Injuries happen, especially when one player crashes into another at high speeds, as Curry did. But injuries right now are happening at an alarming rate—particularly those that involve trauma to muscles, ligaments, and tendons. Last season was one of the most injury-marred seasons in N.B.A. history. According to the athletic trainer Jeff Stotts, who tracks injury data, players missed around sixty-five hundred games with injuries—the highest in nearly twenty years, not counting the COVID seasons. The first month and a half of this season has been just as bad. The difference is that such a high proportion of stars—defined in this case as a player who has made an All-Star or All-N.B.A. team at least once in the past three seasons—have been affected by soft-tissue injuries. Stars have already missed more than two hundred games between them. It is the story of the season so far: on any given night, nearly half the league’s best and most well-known players are sitting on the bench, in street clothes.
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Eric Nehm: Updated injury report for tonight vs. New York: Available: Kyle Kuzma Probable: Cole Anthony (non-COVID illness) Gary Trent Jr. (non-COVID illness) Out: Kevin Porter Jr. (left ankle sprain)
TJ McConnell: Alright … so I’m a 6'1" white guy in his mid-30s. In other words, I’m not exactly stopping traffic as this NBA player people recognize. And that’s just me on a normal day. You can imagine, on a day when I’m wearing a hat? I’m almost definitely not getting recognized. And during COVID, when you added a mask to the mix — nah, forget it. I was pretty much fully anonymous. And all that is to say: It’s not Tyrese’s fault. But on his first day in Indy after he got traded, as he was walking through the facility, he and I crossed paths. And I’ve got my hat on, my mask up … I’m chilling. I’m not even thinking about that, though. So of course I just go right up to him, real excited, and I’m like, “Tyrese!!! What’s up brother. How are you??? Bro, welcome to Indy.” Yeah, Tyrese did not know who I was. He was very friendly, but 1000% thought I was some guy who works on the business side. Then a few awkward seconds passed, until eventually I realized what was going on. I took my hat off, pulled my mask down, and we started laughing so hard. We joke about that story with each other all the time……. and honestly I can’t help but think of it right now, as I kind of look back on the season we had.
And when it comes to speaking your mind, especially on topics that go beyond the game (ehm, COVID vaccines), few have been more consistently outspoken than Kyrie Irving. This time, the Dallas Mavericks star raised an issue that rarely comes up from the players' side, questioning whether it still makes sense for NBA salaries to be fully public. "I find it very interesting that, of course, people will know how much the CEOs of Fortune 500 companies make. They will know different avenues of nine to five, in terms of the contract structure, but when it comes to sports, it's like, you know exactly the pay scale, the details of it and then it gets discussed as though there isn't any real live consequences to that," Irving opined in one of his live streams. "I wonder how much that puts a target on someone's life, where you know what's going on, you see it very causal, but it helps the overall growth of a sport, the sexiness of it, like, 'Oh, guess what Kai, or so and so is making this,' record breaking historic numbers… But I look at it, is it too much information at some point though?" the shifty point guard added. Ryan Wolstat: Raptors will play Nikola Jokic, Jamal Murray, Bruce Brown and the NBa title contending Denver Nuggets in Vancouver on October 6. Marc Stein has also reported Dallas Mavericks will hold training camp in former land of the Grizzlies this year.
To start the week, my colleague Austin Karp has some takes on recent viewership figures: This was the second year that the NBA Draft was a two-day affair, and excluding the pandemic years, it was among the lowest NBA Draft audiences on record (a sharp drop for the first round being the main culprit). The full two nights across ESPN and ABC averaged just under 2.6 million viewers, which is down 5% from last year. Back in 2021, with the draft pushed into mid-July by COVID, it averaged 2.26 million. In 2020, when the draft was in November due to COVID (and without an ABC telecast), it averaged 2.13 million. With records dating back to 2008, no other NBA Draft was under 2.6 million viewers.
The NBA got the finish it needed in Game 1 of the NBA Finals, but it was not enough to keep Pacers-Thunder from opening at a non-COVID low. Thursday’s Pacers-Thunder NBA Finals Game 1 averaged a 4.7 rating and 8.91 million viewers on ABC, marking the lowest rated and least-watched Game 1 of the Finals of the Nielsen people meter era (1988-present) outside of the two COVID-affected series, Bucks-Suns in July 2021 (4.5, 8.70M) and Heat-Lakers in the “bubble” on the final day of September 2020 (4.1, 7.69M).
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Williams said it was during that sophomore year that he began truly believing that the NBA was possible. “Obviously, COVID happened. I had a couple injuries here and there. But mainly during COVID, that summer [going into sophomore year] I was really good,” Williams said.
Let's talk a little bit about this team. You all are incredibly close-knit, but it goes beyond the on-court interviews we all see. Lu Dort lived with you for a little bit, and you and JDub carpool to the airport sometimes. How did that happen? Shai Gilgeous-Alexander: So, COVID had happened. We played in the bubble that next season. Lou had lived with me. He had just signed his contract—it was very low—and everything happened so fast. He didn’t have time to get a place. I had a few extra rooms. This was before my wife came out, and I didn’t have a family, obviously. I was young, so I enjoyed the company. So I said, “Just stay.”
Andrei Kirilenko, now ten years into his presidency, said Russia has not played top-level basketball in five years due to Covid and sanctions. “We want to come back. It’s unfair that Russian basketball is absent,” he stated, thanking FIBA for ongoing updates. A key point was the role of CSKA Moscow in EuroLeague politics. “The club votes but cannot play – it’s absurd,” said Kirilenko. He argued that CSKA’s return would facilitate the Federation’s reinstatement by the IOC, which acts more easily when clear cases are presented.
Start with the injuries, because good lord have there been a lot—perhaps even a record number. As of Thursday afternoon, the total player-games lost to injury stood at 6,489, per Jeff Stotts, a certified athletic trainer who tracks the data at InStreetClothes.com. That’s the second highest total in his database, which goes back to the 2005-06 season. But the highest, 7,497 player-games, came in 2021-22, when the Omicron variant of COVID-19 swept through the league; remove all games lost due to COVID, and the figure for that season drops to 6,150. Which makes 2024-25 the worst injury season in about two decades, perhaps ever.
