I bet you didn’t know that Adam Silver and Kyrie Irving were “good friends.” Both attended Duke University and have become close over the years.
Silver spoke about Irving at an NBA Cares event in San Francisco and the recent point guard’s injury.
“First of all, from a personal standpoint, I’ve become good friends with Kyrie over the years,” Silver said. I traveled to South Africa with him and his Dad a year and a half ago, and I’m also a Duke grad (where Irving played.) I’m devastated for him personally. You never like to see injuries, especially at this level, and right in the middle of our highest-profile series.
“Whether or not there’s more we can do to prevent injuries is something we’re very focused on. It’s always been part of the game — injuries happen, and they happen to high-profile players, they happen to guys who aren’t so high-profile. Whether there’s better training practices, whether through better analytics, we can get a sense of what precise movements lead to injuries, whether it’s a function of the schedule are all things that we’re (looking at).”
Irving has had injury history, including only playing ten games at Duke in his lone season there, and has battled injuries throughout the season. He played 13 total games this postseason and had over a week to rest from the Western Conference Finals to the NBA Finals.
He made a huge block on Stephen Curry with under a minute left in regulation, but after playing 40 minutes, he fractured his knee cap that will keep him sidelined 3-4 months.
