“The reality is the wear and tear on our bodies is very different than it was 20-30 years ago, and that’s a fact,” said JJ Redick back in 2022, when he was still serving as an on-air sports analyst for ESPN. This reasoning used by the now Lakers head coach, for shortening the NBA seasons, hasn’t been missed over the last few years. The basketball league, tied with the NHL for having teams play the 2nd most amount of games per season out of all major professional sports leagues in the United States and Canada, has always been a debate factor. The increase in player injuries continues to be an important reason behind shortening the season. Therefore, even 3 years after Redick made those remarks, Stephen A. Smith was willing to endorse them recently amid 3-star players dealing with serious issues.
In a recent segment of ‘The Stephen A. Smith Show’, the ESPN sportscaster touched base on how the availability status of 3 players, aka Damian Lillard, Jayson Tatum, and Tyrese Haliburton, is uncertain for next season. This led him to go back to, as he recalled, “what Lakers coach, former ESPN and ABC analyst JJ Redick said when he was comparing old school to today’s game, and how pace of play wears and tears on the body. Just as much, if not more, than the physicality from the 70s, the 80s, the 90s. And right now, it’s looking like he’s having a point because, look at the injuries that we’re witnessing. Look at that”.
Smith’s focus was especially on Tyrese Haliburton, who, during the recent Game 7 of the NBA Finals, sustained a torn right Achilles tendon. The sad fact was that Haliburton was already suffering from a strained calf injury on that leg earlier, but he still made himself available for Games 6 and 7 of the Finals. The pressure and the desire to make it through this final stage caused the player to go down hard. Even Stephen A. Smith, who has been critical of Haliburton in the past, couldn’t help but sympathize.
“Damn. It was sad when I saw Haliburton go down. Broke my heart, because I wanted to see a healthy Haliburton on the court making noise,” said Smith. “He was playing so well. He played so well in game six. I said to myself, ‘I don’t want to hear anything about injuries. I ain’t seen somebody with a calf injury move like that.’ And then, sure enough, he goes down in game seven, and the injury was very very eerily reminiscent of how Kevin Durant went down against Toronto in that game five, where calf just rolled up the way that it did, and the Achilles tore. Painful, no doubt.”
Jun 22, 2025; Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, USA; Indiana Pacers guard Tyrese Haliburton (0) reacts after suffering an injury during the first quarter against the Oklahoma City Thunder during game seven of the 2025 NBA Finals at Paycom Center. Mandatory Credit: Kyle Terada-Imagn Images
As highlighted by Yahoo! Sports reporter Ben Rohrbach, injuries are now diagnosed with greater frequency in the NBA than before. According to a New York City Data Science Academy study, the percentage of games missed per season rose from almost 15% to 20%, or four more games per player per season, over the past 25 years. The players in the 80s and 90s played the same number of games as the current players do. However, the game has progressed with the passage of time, leading players to perform with more pace. The question is also not just about a player’s athleticism, but also a demand for them to perform well at the youth level, and cover more ground in the pace-and-space era.
In light of this, a shortened season could be beneficial. After all, there would be fewer instances in which a player could be injured and, additionally, a season with fewer games would decrease the amount of fatigue, thereby preventing further instances of wear and tear. Unfortunately, longer seasons are a better place for the league to be on a financial basis.
According to reports, depending on the market, teams can generate around $5 million in revenue per game. Everything from game viewership and ticket sales to merchandise would be impacted by fewer games. This might be why NBA commissioner Adam Silver proposed, earlier this year, to instead reduce the gametime from 48 minutes to 40 minutes (2 minutes reduced per quarter). The same, however, did not meet the expectations of several people, and even JJ Redick openly shunned this proposal.
An issue must be serious enough if Stephen A. Smith was willing to be so sympathetic to Tyrese Haliburton’s injury. After all, this was the same sportscaster who, only a few days ago, was ‘glad’ when the player first got injured.
Stephen A. Smith was “glad” that Tyrese Haliburton got injured: “He’s not helping them”
Back in Game 5 of the NBA Finals, when Tyrese Haliburton left the matchup for treatment after an awkward fall, many Indiana Pacers fans were left concerned. Stephen A. Smith was not among them. During the ESPN Halftime Show, Shams Charania revealed Haliburton’s injury to be right calf tightness. Smith used that to highlight what was going wrong with the game, by stating “[Tyrese] Haliburton has looked awful and I’m glad he’s injured”. Ouch! However, Smith also added, “I’m not saying I’m glad he’s injured, but I’m glad we got that as a rational”.
Some might defend Stephen A. Smith’s belief, even though his way of saying it wasn’t right. After all, Tyrese Haliburton had gone scoreless in the first half of Game 5. Not something a team wants during a crucial matchup in the NBA Finals. Therefore, for the 57-year-old sports contributor, Haliburton being injured meant that another player could come in and cover the point guard position.
Stephen A: “Haliburton has looked awful and I’m glad he’s injured” pic.twitter.com/CIdTcYbtU5
— Oh No He Didn’t (@ohnohedidnt24) June 17, 2025
“You want to be nice all the damn time,” Smith continued. “I’m not trying to be mean or whatever. Just being factual! He looks bad! He was not active. He was not aggressive. And now that we know he’s not healthy, I totally agree with Big Perk. Sit him down! Get him ready for Game 6 because he’s a minus-16 on the floor. He ain’t helping the team!”
Well, the NBA season is over now. Stephen A. Smith has no other excuse to be angry at the player. He hopes, along with JJ Redick, that Haliburton’s plight, and that of other players, might convince Adam Silver to make a change.
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