Basketball
is a popular sport, especially among children and young adults. But like all sports, it carries a risk for injury, whether played in an organized league
or with friends on a local park court:
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More than 200,000 basketball-related injuries occur to young people under age 15 each year requiring treatment in hospital emergency departments.
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Basketball is the fourth leading cause of injury in both unorganized settings and organized community team sports.
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Injuries to basketball players are usually minor, mostly sprains and strains. The ankle and knee are the most common sites of injury, followed by the lower back, hand, and wrist.
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Concussions, however, are relatively common, especially in girls' high school basketball. A 2006 report found that high school girls' basketball had the fourth highest concussion rate (21 per 100,000 player games), behind only football (47), girls' soccer (36), and boys' soccer (22), a concussion rate, according to a study reported in the Winter 2007-2008 Journal of Athletic Training, almost 3 times higher than those for boys,. That same study also found that girls took much longer than boys for post-concussion signs and symptoms to resolve and for them to return to play, findings confirmed in a later study of high school girls soccer players. More than 20% of the concussions suffered by female high school basketball players were recurrent concussions.
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Eye injuries are frequent, usually as a result of being hit with fingers or elbows. Along with baseball basketball is one of the leading causes of sports-related eye injuries in children.
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Along with baseball, basketball accounts for nearly half of all sports-related mouth injuries.
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At the high school and recreational levels, injuries occur more frequently during practice; college players are injured more often during games.
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Girls and women appear to have a slightly higher rate of injury than boys and men. And many of the injuries female players sustain are more serious than those of their male counterparts (e.g., knee injuries)
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According to a study by the National Athletic Trainers Association, two players on every high school basketball team in the country, regardless of gender, are likely to be injured during a season.
Of injuries suffered by high school basketball players, the NATA study found that the most common were:
