NBA commissioner Adam Silver has admitted that he is "devastated" to see Kyrie Irving sidelined for three to four months with a knee injury.
The Cleveland Cavaliers point guard was diagnosed with a fractured kneecap after trying to play through an ongoing tendinitis issue to help his side in the NBA Finals.
Silver told USA Today: "First of all, from a personal standpoint, I've become good friends with Kyrie over the years. I traveled to South Africa with him and his Dad a year and a half ago, and I'm also a Duke grad. So I'm devastated for him personally.
"You never like to see injuries, especially at this level, and right in the middle of our highest-profile series. Whether or not there's more we can do to prevent injuries is something we're very focused on. It's always been part of the game, injuries happen, and they happen to high-profile players, they happen to guys who aren't so high profile.
"Whether there's better training practices, whether through better analytics, we can get a sense of what precise movements lead to injuries, whether it's a function of the schedule are all things that we're [looking at]."
The Cavaliers lost game one of the Finals against the Golden State Warriors in overtime.
