Over 6,000 NBA Games Missed Due To Injury/Illness During 2024-25 Season

If it seems like players are missing more games than usual this NBA season, it is because they have. For just the second time since 2005-06, the league’s total games missed has reached the 6,000 mark, but this time, the COVID-19 illnesses are not involved.

NBA Players Have Missed Over 6,000 Games This Season

The league has taken measures to combat players missing games in recent years. As “load management” has become an issue throughout the NBA, the commissioner’s office came up with what they hoped would be something of a solution. In order for players to receive awards and end-of-season honors, they must participate in 65+ games during the regular season schedule.

The measures weren’t exactly successful this year. After Monday night’s slate of games, the number of contests missed reached a figure of over 6,000, which marks the second time it has happened since 2005-06. The other was in 2021-22, when the Omicron variant of the COVID-19 disease ran rampant throughout the United States, and affected playing time in all sports.

But there was no pandemic this year. So why all of the missed action?

Following last night’s games, the total games lost to injury or illness in the NBA surpassed the 6,000 mark for just the second time since the 2005-06 season. The only other time this has occurred was during the 2021-22 season that was ravaged by the Omicron variant of COVID-19.

— Jeff Stotts (@InStreetClothes) April 1, 2025

One of the culprits has been the issue of tanking. There are a handful of elite prospects that will be available during the 2025 NBA Draft, including potential superstar Cooper Flagg from Duke University. There have been multiple teams this year that have felt as though they have a shot of finishing with the league’s worst record, or a bottom-three finish that would ensure them a 14% chance of locking in the no.1 spot in the selection process.

There have been questionable decisions made by those teams when it comes to lineup choices and holding certain players out as inactives, and the league has taken notice. There have been multiple fines handed down by the front office of the NBA for such allegations.

It hasn’t only been the tanking teams, though. Some of the top franchises in the league, including the Thunder and Celtics, have been accused of holding healthy players out of their rotations. The NBA has been trying to keep the 82-game slog of the regular season relevant to fans, but contending teams have apparently done what they can to save some of their stars and role players for the postseason push come May and June.