The NBA world was rocked on Friday when the news about Gary Payton II's injury with the Portland Trail Blazers broke out. In a nutshell, it was revealed that Portland did not disclose the guard's injury to the Golden State Warriors during their trade discussions. All the while, the same team was asking GP2 to play through his injury by giving him heavy pain relievers. It's a brutal story, but as Dallas Cowboys star Micah Parsons noted, that's not necessarily new in the NFL.
Sad to say it but this is 95% of the NFL! https://t.co/5iRClBasQ7
— Micah Parsons (@MicahhParsons11) February 11, 2023
Injuries are much more common in the NFL than in the NBA due to the nature of the sport. However, the NFL also plays way less games than the NBA. That ultimately led to a culture of players forcing their way through injuries by any means necessary (as the Cowboys star insinuated). In contrast, the NBA's long regular season gives its players more leeway to fully rest from his injuries.
The Cowboys had their fair share of injured players last season, including Micah Parsons. Despite their injuries, though, most of these players pushed through the injury. In contrast, Gary Payton II wanted to sit and recover, but the Blazers seemingly wanted him to play through the injury.
What's mind-boggling about this situation, though, is that the Blazers did NOT disclose this injury to the Warriors during trade talks for Gary Payton II. The injury was only caught when the Warriors were performing a physical on the guard. Assuming that the report about Payton and the Blazers are true, that means Portland knew that their player was injured, and still dealt their player. That's either gross incompetence or complete maliciousness on their part.
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