Sam Presti slams the NBA over injuries: “It’s almost insulting”
The NBA Playoffs were filled with last second shots, Game 7s and injuries. Some of the game’s biggest stars went down with devastating injuries.
The Oklahoma City Thunder are NBA Champions, and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander was named the MVP of the Finals, but their general manager Sam Presti deserves more than just a nod for the way he constructed this title winning team.
NBA defends schedule
Presti, who was named 2025 NBA Executive of the Year, sounded off on the NBA and the league’s stance concerning the rise in serious injuries throughout the postseason, specifically the achilles injuries that three different stars suffered in the playoffs.
“We had already convened a panel of experts before Tyrese’s most recent Achilles rupture,” said NBA commissioner Adam Silver. “We had seven this year. We had zero last year under the exact same circumstances. The most we’ve ever had in a season is four.”
Among the players that went down were Tyrese Haliburton, Boston’s Jayson Tatum and Damian Lillard, all during the playoffs. They didn’t just miss the rest of the postseason but will likely miss all of next season after suffering devastating injuries so late in the season.
Presti feels “almost insulted”
Presti held a press conference in which he talked about the title winning season for the Thunder, but also dipped his toes into the conversation centered around one of the NBA’s biggest problems. Load management has become a hot topic over the last few years. The NBA wants their biggest stars on the court, but while teams try and keep their stars healthy for the duration of the campaign.
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Presti thinks that the strain players have to put their bodies through and the injuries popping up at the end of the season are directly correlated. “ The defensive nature of trying to convince people, players, and teams, that there’s no connection between the loads and the injuries. I think we’re kind of bordering on a level... it’s almost insulting,” said Presti.
One of the reasons the Thunder were able lift their first Larry O’Brien trophy was because they were the healthiest team throughout the playoffs. While they had all hands on deck, they played a banged up Ja Morant in Round 1, an injured Aaron Gordon in Round 2 and saw Haliburton go down in Game 7 of the Finals. Gordon commented on the schedule in the playoffs while dealing with his injury saying, “I would really, really appreciate it if there were a couple of days in between games in the playoffs instead of every other day, regardless if you go seven games,” Gordon said. “I understand if you do your work early, you get first seed, then you can have some time off.”