NBA injuries: The people we cheer for and the game they play

With a horror injury to Gordon Hayward putting a dampener on opening night, the precarious nature of an NBA career was apparent once again.

All excitement for the return of the NBA season was, at least temporarily, wiped out within five minutes of opening tip in the first game of the season.

Gordon Hayward took a hard fall after a collision with LeBron James, resulting in him dislocating his left ankle and fracturing his tibia.

The matchup between the Boston Celtics and Cleveland Cavaliers seemed like the perfect way to start the season from a narrative perspective, but ultimately it was a simple reminder of just how insignificant most of the discussions that drive NBA conversation often are.

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After months of focus on players changing teams because they decided that was the best thing for them to do as individuals and professionals, Hayward’s injury was a perfect illustration of why no other factors should be taken into their consideration when it comes to signing contracts or demanding trades.

With the NBA — and sports generally — being more star-driven than ever, athletes are put on a pedestal that in many ways leads to a reductive view of them as people.

What can sometimes be forgotten when watching players from a seat in the upper tier of an arena, or through a television screen, is that they’re people just like everyone else.

In a GQ profile of LeBron James which posted on Tuesday, there was a quote from the NBA’s most famous player essentially proving that point. Asked whether a state that elected Donald Trump could also love a player as outspoken as he is in his criticism of the president, James responded:

"“That’s a great question. I think, um, they can love what LeBron James does. Do they know what LeBron James completely represents? I don’t think so. So those people may love the way I play the game of basketball, because they might have some grandkids, you know, they might have a son or a daughter or a niece that no matter what they’re talking about, the kids are like, ‘LeBron is LeBron. And I don’t give a damn what you talking about. I love him.’ So they don’t have a choice liking me. But at the end of the day, these people are gonna resort back to who they are. So do I have a definite answer to that? My state definitely voted for Donald Trump, the state that I grew up in. And I think I can sit here and say that I have a lot of fans in that state, too. It’s unfortunate.”"

I’m not here to get into LeBron’s politics or Ohio’s, or mine or yours, but it’s worthwhile to think about the core sentiment at the center of that quote. It’s hard not to realize just how absurd the way we perceive celebrities is.

As fans, we generally love or hate what players do, with little room in between. We don’t know who they really are, though, and their actions in the NBA bubble do less to teach us about that than we’d probably like to admit.

Hayward faced backlash for leaving Utah, just as James did for leaving Cleveland in 2010, and Kevin Durant did for leaving Oklahoma City in 2016. Fandom is strange, and passionate, and leads to poor judgement in the heat of the moment.

It’s rare that the trivial NBA things that spark outrage are so outright and obviously trivial, but Tuesday was one of those nights.

Those who watch the Milwaukee Bucks are no stranger to that sensation.

When Jabari Parker tore his ACL for a second time back in February, it was a knockout punch for the entire fanbase. Months later, most thoughts about the injury may be centered on the impact it has on Milwaukee’s future plans, yet in the immediate aftermath, the hurt Bucks fans were feeling was grounded more in the setback to a young man who’d already fought through so much to get back on the court.

Fandom would be better if people were able to sit back and enjoy the quality of the product that’s put in front of them, while also realizing that those playing at the highest level are still real people, going through their own stuff. They’re not kept in dark cages, and then wheeled out solely to entertain.

Sadly, that’s a change in perception that’s way too idealistic to have any chance of ever coming about.

As the Bucks prepare to open their season against the Boston Celtics on Wednesday night, I have no interest in writing about how Hayward’s absence could help the Bucks in terms of matchups, or how it could lead to a greater opportunity for Milwaukee in the season on the whole.

All of that can and, I’m sure, will be covered here on another day.

Instead, let’s focus on how lucky we all are to be in to a new season. We will once again be amazed by the play of an incredibly, talented, passionate and hard-working group of people, who just so happen to play in the NBA.

After years of striving to achieve their dreams, the reality for any athlete is that their profession is so precarious that their body could fail them at any time.

It could be your favorite player on your favorite team.

We know their faces, their voices, and their styles of play. What we don’t know is the human being underneath it all who’ll have to deal with the pain of injury, and the doubts created by their own body failing them, all while striving to return and thrill us once again.

Next: Win In 6 Podcast #151: Making sense of roster cuts, preseason finale

Life is short. Sports careers are shorter.

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