THE PROMISE OF PREVENTATIVE HEALTH: HOW TECH-DRIVEN PERSONALIZED CARE CAN IMPROVE LONGEVITY
AHMAD RASHAD: Our last panel of the day is on preventive health.
First, let me say hello to another Oregon Duck. Sabrina, once a Duck, always a Duck.
(Cheers and applause.)
This is respect in Duck-dom.
And here to lead the discussion is the host of "Inside the NBA," my main man, please welcome Ernie Johnson.
(Applause.)
ERNIE JOHNSON: No, please sit.
Great to be here. Always is. And thank you for being here for the last -- I guess this is the last panel of the day. There's a lot of pressure on us to bring it home strong, and got a great group here.
We all know that injuries are part of sports, but what if they didn't have to be? From AI to genomic DNA-based medicine, a new wave of technology promises to identify health risk factors, prevent injuries and illnesses before they happen, and better personalize and optimize recovery, treatment, and overall care.
This panel will explore how these innovations can promote athletes' health and well-being and also discuss the potential risks of overreliance on technology.
That was all right off the top of my head.
So let's meet today's panelists. Far right, he just turned 40 in the last couple of weeks. Doesn't look it, does he? Andre Iguodala, the NBA legend and acting executive director of the National Basketball Players Association.
(Applause.)
We have Dr. Christina Mack, the chief scientific officer at IQVIA, a global provider of advanced analytics and clinical research.
(Applause.)
This is CJ McCollum, plays for the New Orleans Pelicans, who are under the radar right now, playing really good basketball.
CJ McCOLLUM: You just put us on the radar.
(Laughter and applause.)
ERNIE JOHNSON: President of the National Basketball Players Association.
Dr. Jerome Adams, former U.S. Surgeon General and currently the executive director of Health Equity Initiatives at Purdue University.
(Applause.)
DR. JEROME ADAMS: Thank you. And Ernie didn't tell you, Andre is turning 40. I'm turning 50, so...
ERNIE JOHNSON: You're 50 and he's 40?
DR. JEROME ADAMS: Believe it or not.
ERNIE JOHNSON: Wow. Congratulations on 50.
DR. JEROME ADAMS: We're going to tell you all how to look like us when you turn 40 and 50, right?
ERNIE JOHNSON: So everybody stay tuned.
Sabrina Ionescu, you're going to see her this weekend here at All-Star Weekend. She plays for the New York Liberty, a philanthropist, founder of the SI20 Foundation, and looking for something to do on Saturday night. Unless going head-to-head with Steph is enough.
SABRINA IONESCU: And I just turned 26.
(Laughter and applause.)
ERNIE JOHNSON: See? We let kids on the panel too.
And Pau Gasol, Hall of Famer, president of Gasol16 Ventures and the Gasol Foundation and partner at Consello Strive. Pau Gasol.
PAU GASOL: How are you? Thank you.
(Applause.)
ERNIE JOHNSON: All right. So let's get started, Dr. Adams. Will there ever be a world in which modern medicine and innovative technologies will prevent sport-related injuries?
DR. JEROME ADAMS: No. No. No, I mean, the honest truth is that we will never be able to prevent all sports-related injuries. But the truth is and what we're going to explore on this panel is that we have so many -- so many different technologies that will allow us and innovations that will allow us to lessen the occurrence of injuries, to predict injuries, and also to be able to recover from injuries more completely.
And I promise that I won't read from a script, but I do want to frame this because this is what we're going to be talking about today.
Number one, you've got regenerative therapies, like PRP. I had an Achilles injury. I had PRP on both of my Achilles. Stem cell research. You're hearing more and more about the utilization of stem cell research, and the NBA is working with folks to try to incorporate more of that into recovery.
You've got technology integration, wearable devices. And we're going to talk a lot about that, but I think that's the obvious one for folks.
You have injury prevention programs where -- I'm at Purdue University right now. We're culling data from years and years of athletes and injuries to be able to better predict injuries and to better be able to design programs to prevent injuries within athletes.
You have minimally invasive surgeries. And you look at how quickly people are coming back. Once upon a time, an ACL injury, an Achilles tear, that would be something that it may be career-ending, and at most people were coming back in 18, 24 months. A year back from an ACL or an Achilles injury was unheard of. It was remarkable. Now we've got people coming back in season, same season, with these new innovative surgeries and techniques.
And then also, something that I talked a lot about with Andre backstage, nutrition and recovery optimization. I think this is really key, and it's one of the things that we can really customize for people and that anyone can do. Anyone can improve their diet. Anyone can improve their sleep. Anyone can improve their mental health and their meditation in a way that will help them be a better athlete and a healthier person.
ERNIE JOHNSON: Excellent. You know, you point out, like, ACL injuries. I remember -- this is going back a long time because I've been at TNT for 35 years -- first story I ever did was going out to Flathead Lake in Montana to visit with Larry Krystkowiak, who had just torn his ACL in the playoffs the year before, and the big question is will the guy ever play again?
And you never think that way anymore when it comes to that. You think of being on the shelf for a while, but certainly not ending a career.
I want to direct this to the players and former players who are on the set. So what is it like these days to -- I guess to be studied, to have your metrics checked all the time, I mean, and how is this being done, CJ?
CJ McCOLLUM: Put me on the spot first. I think, to be honest, at times it does feel invasive.
ERNIE JOHNSON: How so?
CJ McCOLLUM: Because as a 32-year-old basketball player --
ERNIE JOHNSON: We'll have everybody's age out here before it's all over.
(Laughter.)
ERNIE JOHNSON: I'm 67, by the way.
PANELIST: There you go.
CJ McCOLLUM: Wow. Aging well.
As a 32-year-old who's closer to the end than the beginning, most likely, you're afraid of metrics being used against you at times. And it's not just speed, rhythm, your balance, your miles, force, all those things you think about how that could be used against you in a contract negotiation, whatever the case may be, as you get closer to 35. Unless you're Steph, Bron, then it doesn't really matter. But I think you think about that.
But I think, on the other side, you want to know your numbers. You want to know where you're at compared to when you were 25. You want to kind of figure out how to really maximize conditioning, diet, and sleep.
And I think compared to how I ate at 25, I eat a lot better, I drink more red wine than whiskey, and I try to get eight hours of sleep at night when I can.
So I think, from that standpoint, it's been very helpful for me to kind of figure out how I can maximize my playing career and really maximize 32 to whenever I decide to call it quits.
ERNIE JOHNSON: Yeah. So, I mean, how are you being monitored? I mean, what are you wearing and when is this happening? Are you always wearing stuff that's measuring what you're doing, I mean, when you're on the floor?
SABRINA IONESCU: I mean, we do. So I would say --
ERNIE JOHNSON: So what is it? What do you --
SABRINA IONESCU: Like, a chip. We wear, like, a tracking chip that measures, like, where your heart rate is at, heart rate variability, your high days, your low days.
And I think for us it's really important because a lot of times as athletes we always just push through and we always just say we feel good, we got to play. You show up to practice, and you got to show up every single day.
And I think it's given performance teams and coaching staffs an idea of where players are at. If you're tired, if you have a back-to-back game, if you played 40 minutes, your training routine shouldn't be the same as someone who potentially is playing 20 or 10 minutes.
I think it just gives a little bit of insight on weight training, sleep, nutrition, how you should be hydrating, depending on what your workload is at.
ERNIE JOHNSON: Yeah. What was it like, Pau, when you came into the league? And we're talking, like, turn of the century. Literally. It was. But --
PAU GASOL: Close.
ERNIE JOHNSON: So what was it like as compared to at the end of your career what you were -- what you were -- had available to you?
PAU GASOL: Sure. No, definitely a big change in pretty much 20 years of career. You start seeing all the wearables coming in, all the analytics, teams really investing in analytics themes and sports science, understanding how can you get the best performance out of your players and tracking them.
So there's that fine balance, as CJ was talking about, where you feel like, okay, who has access to my data, you know, and how is it going to be used? Because from the team's perspective, obviously, they're running a business too, and you have to understand that side of it as well.
I think from a player's perspective, I think it kind of forces you a little bit to be more mindful and to be a better pro. Because you do want to perform better. And sometimes you ignore what sleeping five hours instead of eight does to my body on a consistent basis, what having an extra drink or two at night, which we have to manage stress levels, we have to manage adrenaline, right?
And we talked about that, the recovery aspect, how do you go to sleep better at night? So all this. The nutrition aspect, how teams have invested in chefs providing food right after games because it's better to replenish glycogen right after the effort, right?
So all these details are being provided, but at the same time, you know -- and you see they say: Try the Apple Watch. We'll give you an Apple Watch if you provide us with your health or sleep data. We'll give you an Oura Ring if you provide us with -- for free, right?
And then so you kind of entice, and the catapult also, that kind of measures your effort, your distance, your speed, how hard are you going today, have you taken it a little lighter today than you did yesterday.
So there's a lot of information there that you have to kind of understand and be knowledgeable about so it doesn't hurt you, it empowers you, but it doesn't hurt you.
It does help the team. Obviously, they want as much information as they can because they have to make decisions when it comes down to business and performance and team.
ERNIE JOHNSON: Andre, weigh in on this.
ANDRE IGUODALA: It's very, very complex. But, I mean, you go back to, I think, when Rocky was fighting, and Rocky's training versus the Russian's training, I mean, they were --
ERNIE JOHNSON: That was a movie, though, wasn't it? Okay, I'm just kidding.
ANDRE IGUODALA: But, I mean, they were --
ERNIE JOHNSON: I know, I'm messing with you.
ANDRE IGUODALA: You think it's a movie, but that's what we're doing in real time now. And so everything that the athlete is doing, and when you talk about preventative health, is recovery and how it's fastest time to recovery.
And when I came into the league, there weren't training tables with food for breakfast. We didn't even have a parking lot. But the training facilities, the equipment that you're using, now it's you have a bigger staff. The staffs have tripled in size. You're looking at tights being passed out going onto the plane, for recovery tights or recovery socks.
You're looking at the machines that are flushing out your legs after a game. You would never thought you see a guy getting a full workout in after the first game of a back-to-back, where you get guys on the bikes, they got to flush out; then they get into their recovery boots, and then they put on the recovery ice, then they put on recovery tights. It's like a whole process postgame to get you to recover to come back full throttle for the second night.
And just as Pau was saying, like sleep is a big thing, how guys are able to recover getting in late from a game trip, and are the planes suitable for the guys, being bigger individuals.
Now, our planes are different. And you would like to have more space, but I found that laying down on the plane and sleeping on the floor is better for me than actually sitting in the chair. And so you get a more personalized experience as well with your data.
And I think that's the big thing about data is that, yes, you can have this big pot of information as to the whole, but when you speak to how does your metabolism work, it's totally different from someone else's. And then how do you consume a certain nutrient and how much is staying in your body versus being flushed out compared to someone else on the team.
And so the data can empower you, but it's still the wild, wild West of how we're using that data. And that's not in the sports, that's just in tech in general, and we've seen how crazy that's gone over the years.
ERNIE JOHNSON: Yeah.
DR. JEROME ADAMS: Ernie, can I pull a thread really quickly?
ERNIE JOHNSON: Yeah.
DR. JEROME ADAMS: Because CJ brought up I think what is a critical point here, and that is trust. You heard Pau say they're giving you the Apple Watch for free. They don't give you anything for free. Not a single app on this phone is free. Somebody is making hundreds of thousands, millions, hundreds of millions of dollars off of the data they're collecting every time you play Candy Crush or every time you log in to your app. And transparency is incredibly important if you want to have trust.
That said, I think it's incredibly important, and Adam Silver came up and said hi to us earlier, and I think transparency, helping people know who's going to have your data, where that data is going to go to, is somebody making money off of that data. If so, are the players going to get some of that money back?
Because I think about the entire population, not just the NBA, and the Black community, in particular, is extremely reticent to trust new technologies.
I was the pandemic guy. And you all remember, folks didn't want to take vaccines because they thought there was a microchip that was going to be put into them to monitor them.
Folks are worried about other folks having their data and monitoring them. And it's a constant fear, and it causes people not to reap the health benefits.
And I think you all as players have a real opportunity to talk about the upside. We're not just -- you know, we focus on the negative, but the upside: Hey, we can help with your blood sugar. We can help with your blood pressure. We can help you recover. We can help you be healthier longer if we have this data.
But, again, there has to be an openness and honesty, a level of trust there.
ERNIE JOHNSON: Yeah. Dr. Mack, I appreciate your patience, because obviously we're getting to you. We had the players' input. And as I -- as we talk to Christina, look, folks, it was -- we're coming up on four years, four years ago that the pandemic happens. And sometimes it seems like it was yesterday. Sometimes it feels like, oh, yeah, that's an old chapter.
But what Christina Mack did to help this league stay afloat and get that bubble and keep playing, she deserves every round of applause you can possibly think of. So we appreciate that.
(Applause.)
So these days, certainly, lots of talk about load management with players and whether rest was needed, whether load management is effective. Because things have changed. So where do we stand on this whole thing? And, oh, look at Andre --
ANDRE IGUODALA: I'm learning.
ERNIE JOHNSON: I know. I know. A lot of interested folks here.
DR. CHRISTINA MACK: So I want to start that kind of pulling on the thread of the wearable devices and kind of what can we do with the information that we're getting because we are getting so much, we are measuring so much.
And I think one of the keys, as I listen and as I talk to players and those who represent players, they are producing, and actually as a population, everyone out there wearing Oura Ring and an Apple Watch and the different devices that we all have, we're leaving so much data in our wake as we move.
And what's happening with that data is it's all coming together. And that's very powerful. It's actually not powerful when it's just us, because people are developing these devices and it's measuring me, but what is the -- what's the internal validity of that device? Is it measuring me the same way every day? What's the external validity? Does it measure you the way that it measures me?
So as we move forward to try to make decisions on -- based on what the devices are telling us -- you know, load management is a good example -- we need to be able to trust those, that information.
And the only way to do that is to bring it together and learn from it and test it and validate it in aggregate. We can't do it just with ourselves.
So that's -- I think it's a really interesting piece because, to your question about load management, you know, we have long-standing beliefs about rest and when you need rest, and then we also have long-standing beliefs about how do you get an elite player ready to play in an NBA game.
That readiness is absolutely critical. And without it you have a very high risk of injury. And I know everyone's kind of nodding up here. I mean, you need to be ready for that.
So when we look at the data and we look at load management in the NBA setting in particular, but also more broadly, what we see universally is that it's really important to strategically bring load up kind of with the right cadence, with the right gradual. We need to get those muscles ready. The body needs to be ready.
And then when it's there and it's ready for elite-level competition, to some extent it needs to stay there so that you are ready again for each of those games and we're not risking -- we don't have a risk of injury by kind of deconditioning in between.
ERNIE JOHNSON: With all the information available and everybody's different and everybody's going to respond differently and players are all different, isn't there a way to say that, okay, you're playing a back-to-back; now, in your case, here's what you need to do to be ready to play in the second game of a back-to-back? It's not just a general rule for everybody. So is that going on?
DR. CHRISTINA MACK: Absolutely. I believe that it is. And one of the disciplines that has exploded -- I'm not going to say my age, but I have been doing this for 10 years --
ERNIE JOHNSON: No, come on, how old are you?
DR. CHRISTINA MACK: 29.
(Laughter.)
You know, one of the things that has exploded --
ERNIE JOHNSON: You didn't have to do that.
DR. CHRISTINA MACK: -- is this concept of sports science, this concept of sport science, and I think the teams working in a very multidisciplinary way together.
So you mentioned nutritionists. When was last time nutritionists and coaches and medical staff and athletic trainers, they're all working together to do something personal for each player so that they are ready for that game?
And this is everything from injury prevention to early diagnosis, accurate diagnosis, as well as kind of postinjury, how do we strategically and safely bring someone back from an injury and get them back in the game.
And I think we do have a completely just reinvented way that we're using technology, data, wearables, health information. And we have our staff kind of doing what they do best, which is using those as tools to make decisions that are very individualized to a player.
ERNIE JOHNSON: So let's get in, again, to the player mindset here. And, Sabrina, there will always be -- I mean, you guys are competitors, and Andre and CJ and Pau, and you want to play. But then so the input from a team, from a team's medical staff, from technology, how do you -- how do you tread that? How do you navigate that of they say this, but I feel, hey, look, I feel good, I can play, but the numbers say no?
SABRINA IONESCU: Yeah, that's a tough one. And it's funny you ask that because actually this last season we were in training camp, and I had my tracker on, and someone from the team came up and tried to pull me out of practice because I reached my daily limit.
And that didn't -- that didn't go very well. I continued to stay in practice and finished.
But I think that's the tough part, right? Like we're competitors, we want to play. A lot of us are in love with the process of working. And a lot of that is also mental, right? Like those reps obviously are our physical reps, but I think they help us mentally as well. Like I've put the work in, and now I feel prepared. A lot of it is part of preparation.
But I think educating athletes on understanding what it means is almost more important because if I understand why I'm getting pulled out and understanding this is going to help you be able to play three or four games that are coming next week or this is what you can supplement with not getting those reps, you can come on the bike.
And I think just the education behind it kind of puts your mind at ease and understanding like, okay, this is trying to help me instead of I'm just going to sit out of practice and watch everyone else practice.
ERNIE JOHNSON: Yeah. Any similar situations for you? I mean, somebody comes up in practice, CJ, and says, That's enough. You've had enough. No, no, I know when I've had.
CJ McCOLLUM: Yeah, I think it's about governing yourself. And as you become older and as you become more aware of your body and what your body needs, you know when you had enough, and you also know when you need to push it to that next threshold to kind of get ready.
For us, for example, we have All-Star break, right, so we played our last game two nights ago. Our next game will be on Thursday. We walk right into a back-to-back. So we got five and seven games after not playing a game for a week.
So for a lot of guys, it's about understanding the stressors of your body and putting your body through the right stress. So you shouldn't take five or six days off in a row and then try to play five games in seven nights because that's -- for me personally, I think that's a way for you to get hurt.
So I try to always stay active and continue to work through stuff. So if the team would say, hey, we don't want you to finish practice, well, I have to supplement with some other sort of conditioning, whether that's bike, VersaClimber, pushing a sled, pulling a sled, treadmill. We have to do something so that I feel, like she said before, not just mentally there, but physically there so that I can perform at the level that I'm accustomed to.
The last thing I'll say is historically, obviously, you have designated rest days, you have high-stress periods where -- for us, I've been home for 5 out of the last 26 days. So we basically did a road trip, came home for three days, did another road trip. I came home for 36 hours, and then I came here for this trip.
So we've been traveling a lot. So you have to understand hydration, sleep, all of those things, what time you're eating, what you're eating. All those things kind of matter. And that shapes and shifts how you play and how you perform.
But the last thing I'll say is when you sit for a game -- and I think Dre, Sabrina, Pau, please chime in on this -- it's worse than playing in the game. You think that you're going to have a day off, but they make you do extra conditioning. They strap the heart rate monitors on you.
Like I'll use Z for an example, my teammate Zion. If he misses the game, he's mad that he's missing the game because he has to do more conditioning than he would have had to do by playing 32 minutes in the game.
And it's like it's frustrating because like I thought this was a designated rest day for me, and this load is more strenuous than me going and guarding Steph Curry for 36 minutes. Like, I don't understand. But that's just the theory behind it.
So for the casual fan, just understand that we're not just chilling in the back, eating popcorn. Like, it's -- real things are happening behind the scenes so that, if I am missing this game, I am ready to go two days later.
ANDRE IGUODALA: No, I mean, it's all great points. And I appreciated what you said, Christina, in terms of -- and we're all off the record, so I'm good. But I'm sitting in a tough position because when I came into the league -- like Pau, we're older guys -- I played -- I only missed, like, a handful of games in my first eight years. Like, I don't know, somebody can check it, I might have missed six games the first eight years.
I didn't have my real injury until year nine or ten. Ten. Year ten I had my first real injury, and that's when --
ERNIE JOHNSON: Because you played too much your first eight years.
ANDRE IGUODALA: Well, I ended up playing 19.
ERNIE JOHNSON: No, no, I'm messing with you.
ANDRE IGUODALA: Well, the last two I really was -- I was old, too old to be playing.
But what I did learn was -- and playing in Miami Heat for Pat Riley was an amazing experience because you learn that you need load on your body in order to play at a very high level and extended minutes when it's most important, which is late April, May, and June.
And I think sometimes, well, to what Sabrina was saying, you use the data as a part of the process. It's a part of the process. It isn't the process.
And so you look at the data, and it can tell you how you can alter what you preplanned. Like, hey, your energy is a little low today so you might want to do less. Now, if you want to go further, we're just keeping you up to speed on how your body is reacting. So it's a process.
But then, at the same time, we went to the Finals a lot. I won't say how many times. We went to the Finals a lot. And so we're playing an extra season every four or five years, right? We had an extra season put on us. And so we played seven seasons in six years, essentially.
And so we were the hot ticket. And I think sometimes it was taken out of context when we had guys sitting certain games, not understanding the full body of work. Like you said, you can't just take one person or one example, you need the full scope of the data. And sometimes I think there are certain pieces of the puzzle that may be missed when you're trying to write a certain narrative.
And so as we continue to get more data, it's for the benefit of the product, and the best product is to have the best players out there the majority of the time because it is beneficial for them to be out there this much of the season.
Like, I'm an 82-game guy, personally. Now, I know I represent our guys, but, yes, we're a part of this entire ecosystem. We're stakeholders as well. And so every game is important to me, not just national televised games, because it's better for the product. And you want players to understand like Game 67 is just important as Game 1, is just as important as the game in May, June, July.
ERNIE JOHNSON: Especially if it's Game 1 for a fan.
ANDRE IGUODALA: Right.
ERNIE JOHNSON: You know?
ANDRE IGUODALA: Right. Don't try to use that against me.
DR. JEROME ADAMS: And, Ernie, it's not just about the data telling you when you need to do less. It also is the data telling you when you need to do more.
So, you know, I was an athlete throughout high school, and every athlete in here will tell you the hardest things to get athletes to do are to stretch, to go to the trainer, and to do your physical therapy when you've had an injury.
And if we can use that data to show you that, hey, your stretching is leading to increased flexibility, it's leading to increased performance, if we can use that data to show you that when you're going to physical therapy and you're just tired of it and you don't feel like you're actually getting better, that, hey, actually, we have data to show you that your muscles are getting stronger, that you're jumping higher than what you did the day before, that you're running faster, you're going to get people to be able to participate in those injury recovery efforts, I think, more successfully and with more knowledge, you know, more understanding of why they're doing it and the benefit they're getting from it.
PAU GASOL: And one aspect that I also want to kind of point out here is that athletes, intrinsically, we're -- you know, we push our limits. We got to where we are by pushing our limits, pushing our boundaries, you know.
It's very hard to kind of pull back without, oh, then it's, you know, you got a two-overtime game, you know, what now? I'm not trained enough, I'm not -- haven't pushed enough, hard enough for me to be efficient and make a difference in this particular moment. Playoff time, just the same, or more, a seven-game series.
Seven-game, it's win or go home. You got to deliver, right? So you have to put in a lot of work in order to prepare yourself for that. And you have to have pushed your limits and your boundaries more than potentially everybody else. So that's kind of one point.
But at the same time, what Sabrina was talking about, I think the way to kind of counter that a little bit is educate the athlete, not just show them -- they say, hey, show them data or show them things -- but explain why that's important, why that makes a big difference to that particular athlete, to that individual.
For me, I remember one of my last years in the NBA, I had a stress reaction to my navicular bone. And, yeah, I just -- I spent a month and a half out. I was still -- you know, I'm 39, I'm still trying to play, I'm still trying to prove I'm one of the best players out there, I'm still trying to add value to my team in San Antonio at the time.
I come back, I've been picking it up, ramping it up, come back couple games, and we have a back-to-back. And one of the trainers tells me: Pau, you shouldn't. You shouldn't play. Back-to-back, you shouldn't play.
But they didn't -- they didn't really explain to me or tell me: Hey, Pau, back-to-backs, when you come back, you're not going to play back-to-backs. So don't have that expectation.
Because once you give me the free reins, I'm going. Right? You give me the green light, I'm going. So it's hard for me to pull back and say, oh, no, no, I'm going to easy up, I'm going to let up.
So I ended up playing the back-to-backs, and then a month and a half later I get a fracture in my navicular.
So it is -- you have to really educate and explain and take time, not just to show, hey, you shouldn't do this or you got to do this, but why. You know, take the time to do that.
ERNIE JOHNSON: Christina, where's AI fitting into all this?
DR. CHRISTINA MACK: It's a good -- it's the question of the day. I think -- and I'm going to -- I think you gave me the perfect kind of incoming for this. I think we have to understand what the models are telling us.
So we are in such a -- Adam talked this morning about a disruption. And we're in such a just moment of evolution with AI right now because we've had the data for a long time and we've been amassing it for a long time and we're doing that in greater volume now, and we have a technology that is just -- it's growing and it's exploding and it's becoming more accessible, and it's now starting to tell us what is in that data. It's telling us what to do.
And I think to your point, the role of AI is to help us understand what we should do, what we can do, what's safe. But what it's giving us in many cases, especially injury prevention, is a risk, is a probability that you might get injured.
And so as we talk about are we ever going to be able to predict injury, you know, no, we are not there where someone's playing, the AI is going to tell us he's about to get injured, she's about to get injured, pull her off. We're not there.
It's going to tell us, you know, he or she has four times the risk of being injured because of the data that I have on this individual from their wearable device.
We need to be on the other side of that saying, okay, four times the risk, what is the risk? Is it .05 percent? Because four times the risk of that is not a very high risk. Or is it an absolutely high risk and we need to do something different?
So AI is here to give us insights that the human brain will never be able to get and advanced statistical analytics can never get from the massive volumes of data that are out there now. It can assess and bring all that together for us, and then we've got to really be smart about putting our human knowledge on top of that to decide what actions to take.
ERNIE JOHNSON: Sabrina, how do you get ready for a game? What's a game day ritual, and what is a game -- how do you mentally and physically prepare for the next game, whether that's having a day off beforehand or the day of the game?
SABRINA IONESCU: I would say, obviously, there's things that you can't miss the day of the game, depending on what time the game is at, whether it's shootaround, walkthrough.
So if the game is at 7:00, like, you know, you get up early in the morning. I eat, I stretch, I go early to the facility. I get shots up on my own. And then we watch film. We have shootaround or walkthrough with the team, go home, eat, take a nap, kind of just try and not think about the game.
And then you come back and you shoot again. You go through your whole pregame routine. And it's always dependent on season, on what time you go out and who you're shooting with. But you're on for another about hour right before the game, and then you start the game, right, warmups and whatnot.
And then I think the really important part is after. Because I struggle with sleeping after a game. I can't shut my mind off after any game, whether we win or lose. And I'll stay up until 2:00 or 3:00 a.m. just staring at the walls because I'm just replaying every single play. And then usually you got to get up tomorrow and either travel or practice or go back and play another game.
And so kind of just listening to what everyone's saying, I think harping on preventative is so important instead of reactive.
Because I think a lot of the times we've seen: You got hurt. Let's look at the data. Oh, all your numbers were really bad and this is what it looked like. We could have told you that. And then I think that's where the athletes get I would say annoyed because it's like I could have prevented this.
Instead of when you're -- when a trainer comes up and wants to talk to you about, hey, these are the things that you can do to prevent you from getting injured or to prevent you from not being able to perform at your best at a certain game, I think that's when athletes are really going to buy in on like, okay, I want to be a part of my data, I want to own my data, and I want to get a better understanding of what it is that I can do to be my best during the years that I have playing.
ERNIE JOHNSON: Is it tough to differentiate between what's annoying and what's beneficial, Andre?
ANDRE IGUODALA: That's a good question. You have to have the right person pose the question. And I think that's a part of the psychology of it. And I think that's part of the process as well.
You know, there's the physical, there's the body, there's the data, but also the psychology of an athlete. And we've seen that over time, you know, with certain athletes not feeling comfortable coming back on the court. Why is that? You know, has the team lost trust?
You know, I think with load management, I think it was a part of the R&D process of some of our teams, and somehow the onus got put on the players in terms of it was something the players implemented when in actuality it was something that I think teams are trying to solve for because they saw it working in a certain system.
San Antonio Spurs, they went to the Finals a lot. Load management made sense for them. Golden State Warriors, they went to the Finals a lot. Load management made sense for them. And I think some teams thought that was a part of their process. No, no, you didn't get there as many times. You're a part of a different type of process.
And so to get the -- I think to give the athletes more information on all aspects of sports, the business, obviously, you know, ownership stake. Ownership has been a topic of conversation. The data on your body and your high-performance information, that's become a hot topic as well.
These are all the things that the athlete needs to buy into because it does help them, financially, because it does help the product become better. And when there's a better product, it's a better viewing experience and the fan enjoys it more.
ERNIE JOHNSON: If you can keep this answer to a minute, you get a medal. But also, look, not everybody has wearables. You know, the general public, not everybody has access to, man, this will put you at your optimum in your day-to-day, in your day-to-day life. So what is digital health equity doing in that regard?
DR. JEROME ADAMS: Well, digital health equity is the concept that we want to make sure as we have these new innovations available that they're available to everyone.
Again, like you said, not everyone has a wearable. Not everyone has Wi-Fi. We're in Indiana, the home of basketball. Most of Indiana is rural. Many people don't have access. They can't hook up to a telehealth visit. They can't hook up their Apple Watch, even if they have one, to get connected.
And so it's making sure we're being thoughtful about who has access, who has trust in these devices, who benefits from these devices. Is everyone profiting equally? Or at least do they know that their data is being used to generate a profit moving forward?
That's the world that we want. Because the danger, and I'll tell you this from a medical side, is that a lot of the innovations that we've seen in medicine, we laude them, but what they've actually done is they've increased disparities.
And they've increased disparities because the haves -- the people with insurance, the people who can afford them -- get them, and the people who can't, don't.
And as a father of three teenagers who are playing high school sports, as someone who grew up playing sports, I really worry about this world where a certain group of people are going to be able to be these elite athletes, because of all this information and all this technology that they have, and a certain -- another group of people aren't going to be able to avoid injury, aren't going to be able to benefit from these technologies.
ERNIE JOHNSON: I want to thank the members of the panel. Before we wrap up, and I know Ahmad is lurking in the shadows, couple of weeks from now, huge day for Sabrina, because we've got upcoming nuptials. Your fiance is in the house, correct?
SABRINA IONESCU: Yes.
(Applause.)
ERNIE JOHNSON: Plays in the NFL. Congratulations on that. It's Hroniss, right?
SABRINA IONESCU: Yes.
ERNIE JOHNSON: Grasu.
SABRINA IONESCU: Yes.
ERNIE JOHNSON: And so we wish you well and a long marriage and a happy marriage, and really happy for you.
SABRINA IONESCU: Thank you.
ERNIE JOHNSON: It's going to be awesome.
A hand for the panel, please.
(Applause.)
ERNIE JOHNSON: And now the main man, Ahmad Rashad.
AHMAD RASHAD: Thank you very much, Ernie, and to all the great moderators and panelists who have made this Tech Summit one of the best yet.
Special thanks to the NBA team who brought us together for this fantastic event. And I want to thank all of you in the room here for being such a great audience and want you to enjoy the rest of All-Star Weekend.
Give yourself a hand.
(Applause.)
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports