NBA Players Association head Michele Roberts was “mortified” by the Golden State Warriors’ handling of head injuries to All-Stars Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson.
The union has hired neurologists to go through the NBA’s concussion policy with a fine-toothed comb.
The NBA has averaged 13 concussions a season over the past four years since the protocols were first put in place—Roberts is pushing for injured players to be held out of action for longer periods of time to ensure they’re truly fit to play.
Per the AP:
When NBA union chief Michele Roberts watched Stephen Curry return to a game after his head slammed against the floor and he walked woozily to the locker room, she immediately took a closer look at the league’s concussion protocols. […] Two nights later, when Curry’s Golden State teammate Klay Thompson was cleared to return after being kneed in the head only to later be diagnosed with a concussion, her reaction was much stronger. […] “It mortified me,” she said.
The director of the league’s concussion program, Dr. Jeffrey Kutcher, said the Warriors handled both instances properly even though Thompson later was diagnosed with a concussion. […] Roberts is not convinced that players shouldn’t be held out longer out of caution after being hit in the head. While stressing that she is a lawyer, not a doctor, and that she will wait to hear what the medical experts tell her, she also said one player being allowed back in a game with a concussion is too many.
“That number is sufficient to make us all look at whether we want to risk a player’s health for a game,” she said. “To say it happens so rarely or doesn’t happen frequently enough to change the rules is not enough. We’re talking potentially about someone’s life. I don’t think we should play an odds game when it comes to a player’s life.”
