BY HENRY ABBOTT

Zion Williamson spent most of last season away from the New Orleans Pelicans. Ben Simmons missed a lot of games for a lot of reasons. Kyrie Irving played, and then barely played, for the Nets.

NBA stars are missing a ton of games. I looked at everyone who has played in an All-Star game over the past three years—48 players in total—and then added the NBA’s current high-earners to beef up this sample to a decent enough chunk of players that it would be possible to approach a trend. By my count:

• The average NBA star from this list missed 28 games last season. 

• Zero of those 48 players checked into even 80 of the 82 games last season.

• Five top players—Williamson, Simmons, John Wall, Kawhi Leonard, and Jamal Murray—missed the entire season. 

It’s a trend that includes many of the league’s biggest names and practically all the MVP candidates. Over the …