National Basketball Association (NBA), the National Basketball Players Association (NBPA), and the Next Gen Basketball Players Union (NBGPU) in collaboration with GE HealthCare and MedStar Health announced the completion of the data collection phase of a longitudinal pilot study of NBA G League players. The research study was designed to collect data that could help promote player health and wellness and reduce injuries.
The largest assessment of training and game load on athletic performance across a full professional basketball season, the study monitored musculoskeletal and joint health of NBA G League players from four teams over the course of the 2023-24 campaign. The forthcoming study results aim to improve understandings of and help inform future best practices for playing, training, and recovery with focus on the structure and function of the knee joint – notably the patellar tendon.
The study performed prospective, longitudinal assessments on athletes by combining daily use of wearable technologies to provide consistent measures of game and training loads with serial biomechanical, kinematic, and force-producing assessments. Advanced imaging techniques used in the study included ultrasound shear wave elastography, MRI equipped with deep learning reconstruction, and image-based muscle analysis by Springbok Analytics. These assessments began during G League training camp in early November and concluded at the end of the G League season in March.
Ultrasound shear wave elastography is an advanced, quantitative method for analyzing functional changes in the patellar tendon, and when used to measure the stiffness of tissue in the patellar tendon, the method has the potential to identify risk factors or indicators of tendinopathy onset. To date, this will be the first time the method is used in a research study on elite professional basketball players.
The work is the latest in MedStar Health’s portfolio of orthopedic and sports medicine-related research projects, which include studies with other professional leagues and federations on topics ranging from injury prevention, innovative surgical techniques and the application of novel 3D printing technology.
