Dismissing the idea that basketball is a "contactless" sport: quantifying contacts during professional gameplay.

Introduction: Basketball, introduced by Naismith as a contactless and indoor alternative to sports such as American football, now frequently involves physical contact among players, challenging the traditional notion. Up to date, a thorough understanding of these contacts and their implications remains limited. This study aims to analyze player contacts, embedding it within overall load monitoring to optimize performance and reduce injury risk. Methods: Using a mixed-method design, video-based observations and quantitative analysis were employed to study contact characteristics during ten professional male basketball matches. Fisher exact tests and chi-squared tests ( Results: A total of 2,069 player contacts were examined, showing centers had the most contacts at 40.5%, followed by power forwards (19.6%), point guards (17.7%), shooting guards (12.9%), and small forwards (9.3%). Notably, half-court defense (46.1%) and set offense (48.9%) emerged as the primary game phases associated with the majority of contacts across all playing positions. Key play actions leading to physical contact included screening/picking (25.7%), box outs (22.9%), and fights for position (FFP) (18%). Discussion: Basketball entails frequent physical contacts across all playing positions, with distinct patterns observed for each playing position. Integrating contact monitoring alongside traditional load metrics offers a more comprehensive understanding of physical demands in professional basketball. Practical implications include the developing of tailored training strategies based on playing position-specific contact profiles and recognizing the physiological and biomechanical impacts of contacts. Future research should consider whether the number of contacts between players has increased over the years, and it should acknowledge the impact of player contacts on performance in basketball in order to refine training strategies and enhance player well-being.