Caring For the Professional Basketball Athlete: A Conceptual Framework

Purpose: The professional basketball player presents a unique challenge that must be approached with a conceptual lens between the sports medicine and sports performance staff. Methods: The author used a combination of subjective and objective methods to determine the primary clinicians on the sports medicine staff. The sports performance staff was also investigated using the standards set forth by respective organizations such as the NSCA. Lastly, data and frameworks were combined to come up with a new integrative algorithm in caring for these specific athletes. Results/Conclusion: Results indicated the sports medicine staff consists primarily of physician, athletic trainers, and physical therapists. The sports performance staff consists of strength and conditioning specialists (CSCS), obtained through the NSCA. The key components of the conceptual framework were Communication, Collaboration, and being open to Feedback for optimal performance healthcare. Applications to sport: The professional basketball athlete invests time, money, and energy into their career. Similarly, organizations/teams are continually looking for ways to increase the standard of care for their athletes, especially with the amount of investment trending into millions of dollars. Through seamless integration and constant communication, the sports medicine and performance staff can create a novel, better framework in caring for their athletes.