NBA, GE Healthcare fund research to benefit player health

NEW YORK (AP) Seeking further ways to prevent injuries, the NBA is joining with GE Healthcare to promote research that could benefit players' health.

With Commissioner Adam Silver saying that players' well-being is the league's ''highest priority,'' the league says Wednesday the partnership aims to ''reduce injuries, lengthen careers and improve post-career health for NBA players.''

The focus will be on acute and overuse musculoskeletal injuries, which affect muscles, nerves, tendons, joints and cartilage and are caused or worsened by factors such as repetition and force.

Dr. John DiFiori, the NBA Director of Sports Medicine, will chair a board that will include physicians from five NBA teams. The league and GE will provide funding for research into orthopedic conditions it says will ''contribute to a deeper understanding of overuse injuries and the resulting impact on athletes' health and missed playing time.''

The league and GE also will collaborate with sneaker partners to advance the research efforts.