This article analyses the legal protection of professional basketball players following sports-related injuries in the legal systems of Lithuania and the United States of America. The research focuses on the legal relationship between professional basketball players and basketball clubs in the event of injury, aiming to assess whether Lithuanian regulation provides sufficient health, financial and legal protection for athletes, and to identify which elements of the collective regulation model in the United States of America could be relevant for improving the Lithuanian legal system. The research finds that, in Lithuania, the scope of guarantees available to a professional basketball player after an injury often depends on the content of the individual sports activity contract; therefore, the athlete’s protection is not sufficiently uniform or clearly predictable. The model in the United States of America is characterised by health and financial guarantees, injury assessment procedures, dispute resolution mechanisms and collective representation of athletes established in a collective agreement. The results of the research support the conclusion that the protection of professional basketball players in Lithuania could be strengthened by introducing minimum guarantees, clearer injury assessment procedures, more effective dispute resolution, and more active collective protection of athletes’ interests.
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