And at no point did anyone say that this was an incredibly aggressive game with elbows being thrown and the like. This is all speculation. The risk of serious injury from playing pick-up basketball with friends is so low that it's really not worth even considering, hence the fact that it's not prohibited by his contract. But the fact that he did get injured (and an incredibly minor one, at that) suddenly everyone becomes an armchair actuary and acts like it was an incredibly dangerous and high-risk activity to have even considered engaging in in the first place. He's a professional athlete in better physical shape than any of us probably ever will be, I think the fact that he isn't allowed to shoot some hoops with friends in his driveway without everyone wringing their hands over it is pretty ridiculous. What you said sounds very speculative to me. No one said this happened "shooting some hoops with friends in his driveway". I would like to think that an athlete of Greinke's caliber can go up for a rebound and come down on his own 2 feet so long as he isn't interfered with. The fact that he went up for a rebound and landed on his side fracturing a rib suggests to me he was undercut or pushed or contacted by someone. Sounds fairly competitive to me.