
NBA players’ union boss Michele Roberts opened an investigation into the league’s concussion protocol because she was “mortified” by the Golden State Warriors’ handling of the head injury evaluations of guards Steph Curry and Klay Thompson in the Western Conference finals.
Roberts told AP the Thompson head injury prompted her to move to hire neurologists on behalf of the players union to investigate changes necessary in the NBA protocol for head injuries.
Dr. Jeffrey Kutcher, who oversees the NBA head-injury program, said the Warriors handled the evaluation of Curry and Thompson by the book. However, Thompson required a ride home from his father, former NBA player Mychal Thompson, who said he knew his son had a concussion even before he was later evaluated with the injury. Klay Thompson was “woozy” and vomited multiple times, his dad said the next day on ESPN Radio.
Roberts is not willing to bow to the letter of the law and is pushing for a more cautious approach – more than in-game evaluations.
“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 comes to player’s life.”
Many head injuries do not produce symptoms for hours or days after the trauma occurs. For that reason, Roberts said no player should be cleared until the delayed reaction period has expired. That period can vary based on the force of the contact and the individual.
Thompson is expected to be cleared for Game 1 of the NBA Finals on Thursday. He was allowed to practice in short segments, removing himself to be evaluated by the training staff to make sure he remains free of concussion symptoms.
Roberts knows holding Thompson out of a game of this magnitude would not be popular. And asking him to sit out any game would bring backlash from players, coaches and owners, she suspects.
“It’s not for them to decide. They’re not doctors,” she said.