In light of the past NBA season, there has been a record-breaking number of Achilles ruptures in the league, with the tally reaching seven, according to Yahoo Sports.
Notable names that ruptured their Achilles just in the playoffs alone were Tyrese Haliburton from the Indiana Pacers in Game 7 of the NBA finals, Jayson Tatum in the Eastern Conference semi-finals (Knicks vs Celtics), and Damian Lillard in the first round of the playoffs (Pacers vs Bucks).
From 1990 to 2023, the average for Achilles tendon ruptures was only 1.36 a season. The previous record was only four in a season, almost doubling the number. Even before the Tyrese Haliburton injury, the NBA Commissioner launched a deeper dive into the high rates of ruptures, using a panel of doctors to research.
The NBA is also using artificial intelligence to further look at the data and find correlations between what happens, according to NBA.com. Still, it begs the question of “What is the problem?” This is the same injury that sidelined quarterback Aaron Rodgrs two years ago.
Many people have gone on to theorize that it’s due to the long 82-game season the NBA has to play, but NBA commissioner Adam Silver debunked this by saying that, most of all, Achilles tears occur before the All-Star break.
Another possible reason a lot of people speculate is the style of play nowadays. Yahoo Sports writer Tom Haberstroh talked about how, when guarding stretch 5’s, he highlighted Jayson Tatum’s series against Karl Anthony-Towns, and when guarding stretch 5’s, you have to “banging down low” and grapple to get rebounds.
This type of defense is strenuous on the person defending because of the amount of ground you have to cover when these seven-footers that can shoot from 30 feet. Straying from that theory, former NBA player Nick Van Exel suggested the possibility of it not being your playing style, but the shoes you wear.
A sports study in 2010, done by Steve Rawson, Craig McNally, and Stefan M Duma, drew the connection between the shoes players wear and the stress on their achilles during dorsiflexion. The study showed that when wearing high-top basketball shoes, the tension on the Achilles tendon was reduced by 9.9%, and with tied laces, high-top shoes cut the dorsiflexion angle by 7.2%.
Since players like Kobe Bryant started making low-top shoes, changing the norm of basketball shoes to provide more ankle movement, improving your agility, but getting rid of the support on the Achilles leaves more strain, leading to rupturing. The sudden outburst of Achilles tears has shocked the league, putting players in fear that they could be next, and they don’t even know what can fully prevent it.
Lack of rest on injuries? Different shoes? Play style? As the NBA develops its investigation into this season-ending injury, future NBA players will learn how to play safer and stay healthy.
