Injuries are ruining Stephen Curry, the Warriors and everyone else

When the clock wound down on Game 7 of the 2016 NBA Finals, Stephen Curry watched from a distance as LeBron, curled up in a ball on the floor, clenched the Larry O’Brien trophy — the trophy that, in the prior months, weeks, and days felt all but destined to fall into Curry’s hands, alongside a Finals MVP. The Warriors had pulled off a historic feat by winning 73 regular season games.

Along the way, Curry won his second MVP in as many years, and became a season-long phenomenon that transcended sports. The detractors poured in through the edges though, and questions of whether Curry’s season was a gimmicky product of the Warriors offense and a modern, 3-point heavy era increased tenfold when he sprained his MCL in the playoffs and, hobbled, he was unable to carry the Warriors, looking like a shell of himself while coming up short. In front of the biggest crowd, he confirmed the beliefs of everyone who doubted him.

I was intent on finding out how Curry, whose career trajectory could be boiled down to exploding in the face of doubt, would follow up one of the best seasons in NBA history. The addition of Kevin Durant undercut that possibility. Curry was brilliant once he found his footing, but he still had to make room for someone else to be spectacular. He would not  be forced to conjure a new level of greatness to exact his revenge. Which is why when Durant, Klay Thompson and Draymond Green all hit the injury reserve list and Curry was set to return from a sprained ankle, I was elated. It wouldn’t be the same as if he had an entire season to himself, but the joy of watching solo Curry for a semi-sustained period would have to be enough. Occasional moments where he shines alone give us a glimpse into the world that could have been. And then he sprained his MCL — the same injury that hobbled him in the 2016 playoffs — 25 minutes into his first game back.

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A couple of games earlier, I was excited to watch the Warriors for the opposite reason: Curry was out — alongside Klay and Durant. The debate that has defined Draymond Green’s ranking among high-level NBA players would finally be answered. Green has always thrived when opposing defenses have keyed in on his teammates, giving him an opening to create and operate in his preferred setting: chaos. Could he have the same impact when opponents treated him like a No. 1 option?  After peppering his stat-line with two near triple-doubles and splitting wins against the Suns and Kings (Thompson was around for some of that game), Green hurt his back in the second quarter of a game against the Spurs and didn’t return for three games.

It has become a familiar refrain. By the All-Star break of the 2017-18 season, players had already lost over 3700 games to injuries, according to InStreetClothes.com, a 28 percent increase from last year. Not only have they dashed some of the NBA’s best storylines, they’ve dashed the concurrent storylines that have emerged because of the initial injury.

There are so many potential culprits. Maybe the shortened preseason forced players to kick it up a gear despite being rustier on opening night than in other seasons. Gordon Hayward and Jeremy Lin both endured potentially season-ending injuries during the first game of the regular season. Some players on teams who have yet to become wise to the fact that an 82-game season is a marathon are still playing their stars too many minutes. Before Jimmy Butler went down with a knee injury, he was leading the league in minutes played per game.

The answer, then, is simple: modernize rotations and shorten the amount of games in a season, an idea that NBA commissioner Adam Silver is open to entertaining. There’s a good chance it’s more complex than that. The NBA’s injury problem could be inextricably tied to how the modern game is played, complicating any potential solutions.

Players have never had to move this much this often, on both sides of the ball. Pace has skyrocketed, and the rise of off-ball action has forced players — and their defenders — to practically sprint around the court for 48 minutes. The Warriors, for example, have lost key players to injuries at nearly every juncture of the season, despite the fact that their coaching staff goes to great pains to keep them well-rested. A couple of weeks ago, I posited that the Rockets relative injury luck might have to do with the fact that they run the fewest miles of any team in the NBA.

Consider the advent of the unicorn, the athletic 7-footer who can handle the ball and shoot like a guard. A great deal of the crew — Kristaps Porzingis, Joel Embiid, Anthony Davis — has missed serious time thanks to injuries. Karl Anthony-Towns, the healthiest of the bunch, is also relatively groundbound. Then there’s Giannis, who might have the most enamoring physical properties of the bench. In 2016, ESPN’s Kevin Arnovitz wrote in detail about his unique body, how he might be one of the few springy, guard-like 7-footers equipped with the muscles and joints required to run and change directions as fast as smaller players. He is currently playing the second-most minutes per game in the NBA, and knee problems continue to tug at him.

If basketball is to continue to evolve in the pace-and-space era, it may push past what even the most astonishing human bodies are capable of doing on a regular basis. Maybe the reason we call them Unicorn’s is because they’re not supposed to exist.

Consider the forces outside his own volition that had to conspire to allow Curry’s perfect season to come into fruition. Prior to the Warriors first championship run, Curry’s ankles were so busted that they threatened to impend, even end, his career. So much so that that the Warriors were able to sign him to a four-year, $44 million deal, a middle ground that eventually turned into the best bargain in professional sports. Prior to the 2012-13 season, he went under a scope not knowing whether he’d be getting reconstructive surgery that could shave a year off his career alongside the possibility of diminishing his ability for good or whether he’d merely be undergoing a routine — at least for him — cleanup. It was the latter, and so the phenomenon was born.

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The circumstances for him to be what he was haven’t conspired since, and for a slew of reasons, they might never again.

In the meantime, league revenue, salaries and viewership continue to swell. The sport has never been so good. Its best moments have never felt so fleeting. Seasons like the one Curry had are miracles. We will not come by them every year.

If things go on like this, fans might have to reshift their expectations. Health might no longer be considered the norm, but a privilege for all involved. For now, all we can do is appreciate the moment, one that is currently absent of Curry, Kawhi Leonard, Joel Embiid, Gordon Hayward, Kyrie Irving, Isaiah Thomas, Mike Conley, DeMarcus Cousins, Andre Roberson, Lonzo Ball, Jimmy Butler and Kristaps Porzingis, among others.