injuries in basketbll

Basketball is a game of profound athletic contrasts. There are graceful, even elegant, movements that appear to defy gravity, that occur in a larger context of physical contact between large, powerful athletes. Impact will often occur between players with little warning and at full speed, with the athletes' bodies contorted in different angles at the point of impact. The nature of these athletic movements creates a wide variety of forces upon the basketball player's body, which in turn creates an equally broad range of potential athletic injuries. Injuries in basketball will arise both as a specific incident of trauma, as well as an overuse condition resulting over time.

As basketball demands quick and explosive movements to be made by players both running and jumping, the most common injury sustained is to the ankle. Ankle sprains occur with some frequency, either as a result of the player landing in a position where the foot is not stable, causing the ankle to roll outward on impact, or where the player lands upon another player's foot, which also creates an uneven surface and causes the foot and the ankle to roll outward. It is a rare competitive basketball player who has not sustained a number of at least minor ankle sprains in their career. Many players, especially at the upper echelons of competition, wear an ankle support or brace as a preventative measure; alternatively, one or both ankles will be taped to provide additional support to the ankle.

Player size is also a factor in the severity of an ankle sprain. In the National Basketball Association (NBA), the average player is 6 ft 8 in (2.03 m) tall, weighing approximately 225 lb (102 kg); in the elite European leagues, average player sizes are only somewhat smaller. The greater size of these athletes, coupled with their general ability to leap higher than the average person, will magnify the forces applied to the ankle.

A less common, and potentially devastating, ankle injury is an Achilles