Would Tyrese Haliburton have avoided injury if season was shorter?

Yahoo

24-07-2025

Yahoo Sports senior NBA reporter Vincent Goodwill and analyst Dan Titus discuss the increase in injuries to NBA players and if the pace of play and length of season are to blame. Hear the full conversation on 'Good Word with Goodwill' and subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube or wherever you listen.
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Video Transcript
Are NBA players playing too many games?
Like, should the season have less than 82 games?
Could that have prevented Tyrese Halliburton from straining his calf and then tearing his Achilles in the last game of the season?
I know where I sit on it.
I think it's ridiculous that we're talking about shortening the season or saying anyone is playing too much basketball during the regular season.
But what say you?
I mean, I think it's not the length of the season.
I think it's the pace of play, the style of play.
And this goes back to probably AAU levels of players just playing, putting too much load on their bodies.
There are a lot of factors that go into play here, but I don't think shortening the season is the answer.
That's not gonna happen; the board of governors would never approve of that.
There's just too much money to be made.
This is why depth and roster building is so critical.
And maybe you expand the rosters, or maybe this goes into the expansion conversation that has been put on hold for three years.
We gotta expand the rosters because there are just going to be more frequent injuries like this.
I think Tyrese Halliburton knew the risks of what he was doing.
He got a calf injury.
If you're gonna push a calf injury, there's only one way that's gonna go.
Yeah, maybe you can force it and make it through, or you're gonna snap your Achilles.
Let's say you did shorten the season, right?
Cause the league has done everything to get players more rest throughout the course of the season.
There are fewer back-to-backs, fewer 3s and 4s, a longer All-Star break.
All these things, right?
And players still get hurt because the human body ain't built for this stuff.
The human body is not built for the age of specialization.
When players are playing one sport from the point that they're 10 years old, because their parents and their AAU coaches see dollar signs and like, you gotta get to the money.
And that's where we are, unfortunately, with all of this nonsense.
It's nonsense.
It's not, it's not on the NBA.
All of these offenses are geared towards, let's get our best player to have the highest usage possible.
So you're gonna have the wear and tear plus the extra load, the pace of the game.
It's so freaking fast.
And so maybe we just don't need to play that fast.
Maybe we need to play a little slower for the betterment of the game, for the betterment of everybody else.
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