Recently, the final four teams for the NBA Cup in Las Vegas were set, with matchups between the San Antonio Spurs and Oklahoma City Thunder in the West, and the Orlando Magic and the New York Knicks in the East set for this weekend. The league has gone to great lengths to drum up interest in the tournament since its inception in 2023, and at this point, the jury is still out from a fan perspective.
Recently, John Hollinger of The Athletic criticized the way the NBA Cup seemingly forces players to play more games early on in the season, but now, the NBA has fired back at those remarks.
“The Athletic’s suggestion that an increase in games missed by star players is related to the early-season schedule is inaccurate and misleading,” wrote NBA Communications on X, formerly Twitter.
The league then pointed to data showing that the number of total games played in the league this year is just about the same as it has been in previous years, both Cup and non-Cup seasons.
The NBA also fought back against Hollinger's claims that there was an uptick in soft-tissue injuries to star players at this juncture of the season, saying that the rate of star injuries is as low as it has been in the last six seasons.
Overall, the NBA has seen a great deal of criticism for still implementing an 82-game schedule despite the rapidly increased pace of play, which has led to numerous brutal injuries at inopportune times of the season, including three star-level players going down with Achilles tears during last year's postseason.
Still, in a money-driven league, it's highly unlikely that the NBA will be cutting down the schedule anytime soon, and instead will fire back at people like Hollinger who criticize them.
