- Title Information
- Title
- The Effects of Anterior Cruciate Ligament Tears on Athletic Performance in the Women’s National Basketball Association (2009-2019)
- Abstract
- Introduction: Anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) tears are one of the most common injuries seen in the Women’s National Basketball Association (WNBA), however there is little data from this past decade investigating the impact of ACL tears on this population. The purpose of this study is to characterize the epidemiology, return to play (RTP) rate and RTP performance in WNBA athletes who sustained an ACL tear in the past decade.
Methods: Publicly available WNBA injury reports were used to find WNBA athletes who sustained ACL tears over the last decade. Return to play performance was determined in players who participated in one full season before and after their injury. For those who fit this criteria, pre- and post-injury performances were compared using a paired sample t-test with statistical significance set at p<0.05.
Results: We identified 26 WNBA players whom sustained ACL tears from 2009-2019. 19 (73%) of the 26 players returned to play. 2 (8%) of the 26 players sustained an ACL tear in the 2019 season and plan on returning to play in the 2020 season. 5 (19%) of the 26 players never returned to play. 14 (54%) of the 26 players played at least one full season before their ACL tear and one full season after their recovery. These players had significantly fewer steals per game (p=0.033), but also significantly fewer turnovers per game (p=0.023) following their return. There was also a significant decrease in player efficiency rating (p=0.025) after their ACL tears. All other player statistics were not significantly different (p>0.05): number of seasons played, number of games played, number of games started, minutes played, field goal percentage, 2-point percentage, 3-point percentage, free throw percentage, total rebounds, assists, and blocks.
Conclusion: The RTP rate of WNBA players who sustain ACL tears is 81%. For those who do return to play, most of their player statistics do not significantly change. However, their overall efficiency on the court does decline. To our knowledge, this is the first study to assess how ACL tears sustained in the last decade affect RTP rate and performance in WNBA players.
- Name
- Name Part
- Axelrod, Kobi
- Role
- Role Term (marcrelator)
(authorityURI="http://id.loc.gov/vocabulary/relators", valueURI="http://id.loc.gov/vocabulary/relators/aut")
- Author
- Name
- Name Part
- Canastra, Neal
- Role
- Role Term (marcrelator)
(authorityURI="http://id.loc.gov/vocabulary/relators", valueURI="http://id.loc.gov/vocabulary/relators/aut")
- Author
- Name
- Name Part
- Lemme, Nicholas
- Role
- Role Term (marcrelator)
(authorityURI="http://id.loc.gov/vocabulary/relators", valueURI="http://id.loc.gov/vocabulary/relators/aut")
- Author
- Name
- Name Part
- Owens, Brett
- Role
- Role Term (marcrelator)
(authorityURI="http://id.loc.gov/vocabulary/relators", valueURI="http://id.loc.gov/vocabulary/relators/aut")
- Author
- Name:
Corporate
- Name Part
- Brown University. Alpert Medical School. Scholarly Concentration Program. Non-Scholarly Concentrator
- Role
- Role Term:
Text
- research program
- Subject (fast)
(authorityURI="http://id.worldcat.org/fast", valueURI="http://id.worldcat.org/fast/00810082")
- Topic
- Anterior cruciate ligament
- Subject (fast)
(authorityURI="http://id.worldcat.org/fast", valueURI="http://id.worldcat.org/fast/00730347")
- Topic
- Women's National Basketball Association
- Language
- Language Term:
Text (ISO639-2B)
- English
- Origin Information
- Date Created
(keyDate="yes", encoding="w3cdtf")
- 2020
- Note
(displayLabel="Scholarly concentration")
- Non-Scholarly Concentrator
- Access Condition:
use and reproduction
(href="")
- All rights reserved
- Access Condition:
logo
(href="")
- Identifier:
DOI
- 10.26300/5vdr-nj12