The Injury Rate in NBA Players Did Not Increase Following Return to Play After the COVID-19 Stay-at-Home Order

The purpose of this study was to investigate the injury rate in NBA players following return to play during the post-COVID-19 shutdown 2019-2020 NBA season.

This study was a retrospective review of all NBA players who were placed on the injury report during the preseason and first 4 weeks of the regular season as well as playoffs from the 2017-2018 through 2020-2021 NBA seasons. The data were compiled using publicly available injury reports. All injuries were recorded, and injury rates were calculated per 1000 athletic exposures. Risk ratio with 95% confidence intervals compared injury rates between the 2 cohorts.

Over the course of the study period, 399 injuries were reported. The highest injury rate per athletic exposure was observed to have occurred during the first month of the regular season in the 2 seasons prior to the COVID-19 pandemic. There was no significant difference in the average number of games missed before and after the pandemic for the preseason (P = .95), first month of regular season (P = .62), and playoffs (P = .69). There was no significant difference in the rate of injury when comparing injury rates before and after the pandemic for the preseason (P = .25), first month of the regular season (P = .11), and playoffs (P = .3).

The rate of injury in NBA players following the COVID-19 pandemic was not significantly higher than 2 recent past NBA seasons.