The 2025-26 season will be the NBA’s 80th, and we have unfortunately seen a lot of talented players fail to fulfill their potential due to injuries over the years. Hall of Famer Dwyane Wade, who battled through one too many injury issues of his own, named the NBA stars he wishes had never gotten hurt.
“It’s a lot of them,” Wade said. “In my era, the ones I remember, like you said, growing up watching Grant Hill. And when you get to go back and look at the highlights of Grant Hill, right now, how he came in the league dominating.
“My Chicago Bulls, like Scottie [Pippen] was that guy, but boy, Scottie couldn’t stay in front of [Grant],” Wade stated. “Could no one stay in front of Grant Hill. And he putting you in the basket. Tracy McGrady, amazing career. You talking about guys that still had great careers, but if they don’t get injured then now we talking even in a different category. That number goes up for those guys.
“So Tracy McGrady, Yao Ming,” Wade continued. “Yao Ming career was cut short because of injuries. You’re talking about a big guy that can fade away right by the three-point line. His touch was crazy. Yao was nice, dawg… Watching him when I first came in the league and watching how you couldn’t do nothing with Yao Ming if Yao didn’t get injured.
“So Yao is another one of those guys,” Wade added. “Brandon Roy. If Brandon Roy don’t get injured, we’re talking about one of the top shooting guards of all time.”
Grant Hill, Tracy McGrady, Yao Ming, and Brandon Roy are certainly among the biggest what-ifs in recent NBA history.
Out of the four, Hill might be the biggest one. He finished third in MVP voting in just his third season (1996-97) and made one of the All-NBA teams in five of his first six campaigns.
Hill was a dominant force in the league, but suffered an ankle injury in 2000 that changed his career trajectory. He had to undergo five ankle surgeries from 2000 to 2004 and was never the same after that. Hill was a solid NBA player for the rest of his career, but you can’t help but wonder what might have been.
Hill was supposed to be part of an exciting duo with McGrady on the Orlando Magic back in 2000, and we never got to see them together at their best. The injury did at least mean that the latter took center stage.
McGrady won back-to-back scoring titles in 2003 and 2004 with the Magic. The good times wouldn’t last, though, as he would be plagued by a series of injuries in the latter half of the 2000s.
By the time 2008 came around, McGrady, who was just 29 years old, was well past his best. He put up just 15.6 points per game in 2008-09 and wouldn’t even average double digits for the rest of his career after that.
Much like with Hill, McGrady was supposed to form an exciting duo with Ming on the Houston Rockets when he arrived in 2004. We at least got to see this duo at their best, only if it was for a short period of time.
The Rockets had selected Ming with the first pick of the 2002 NBA Draft, and he missed just two games in his first three seasons. In the next three, however, he missed 86.
Ming would later be out for the entire 2009-10 season with a foot injury and retired in 2011. He only ended up playing eight seasons in the league and made an All-NBA team in five of them.
Lastly, we get to Roy, who had an even shorter career than Ming. He was an All-Star in three of his first four seasons in the NBA, and the injury bug struck after that. Knee issues led to his retirement in 2011 after just five seasons, but he returned in 2012.
The comeback didn’t last long, however, as Roy retired once again in 2013. There would be no second comeback, and so, he only ended up playing six seasons in the NBA. Former NBA player Nate Robinson believes Roy would have been talked about like Kobe Bryant and LeBron James if he had never gotten hurt.
With there being so many other names that one can bring up, Wade later added a couple more on Instagram. His and Roy’s former teammate, Greg Oden, is another whom he wishes had never gotten injured, along with Derrick Rose.
