The NBA experienced an unprecedented number of Achilles tendon injuries during the 2024-25 season, with seven players suffering tears including stars Damian Lillard, Jayson Tatum, and Tyrese Haliburton. Medical experts attribute the surge to overuse and increased playoff minutes, according to ESPN interviews with four specialists.
Lillard tore his left Achilles during the Milwaukee Bucks’ first-round playoff series against Indiana. Tatum ruptured his right Achilles in the Boston Celtics’ second-round matchup with the New York Knicks. Haliburton suffered his injury in Game 7 of the NBA Finals.
The additional injuries included centers James Wiseman and Isaiah Jackson, plus guards Dejounte Murray and Dru Smith. All sustained their injuries during regular season or playoff action.
“One of the things we know is whenever you increase the minutes you play over a period of five to 10 games, there’s an increase in injury risk,” said Dr. Nirav Pandya, professor of orthopedic surgery at UC San Francisco.
Star players logged 39-40 minutes per playoff game compared to 25-30 minutes during regular season contests. The compressed playoff schedule provided limited recovery time between games.
Medical professionals noted that today’s players accumulate more “mileage” by starting high-level competition at younger ages. This creates additional wear on tendons and ligaments compared to previous generations.
“If you’re looking at a calf muscle or the ligaments and tendons of the average 22-year-old player, they’ve already had so much mileage on them, compared to players 30 or 40 years ago who weren’t doing that,” Pandya explained.
Karin Gravare Silbernagel, a physical therapist and professor at the University of Delaware, compared today’s calf injuries to the kind of hamstring strains seen five to 10 years ago and pointed out that as athletes have prioritized upper-leg strength, their lower legs need to have the strength to keep up.
“At this point, we need to start thinking about the calf and Achilles in the same way,” she said. “Do we have enough strength … to be able to tolerate the sport that we’re doing? The lower leg is lagging behind some of the other things that we do.”
Gravare Silbernagel said the data she has seen doesn’t point to a correlation with calf injuries leading to Achilles’ ruptures, but as soon as there’s a deficit at one point in the leg, like a calf muscle, then the leg is vulnerable for other injuries.
“We don’t necessarily see them going from having a calf strain and then rupturing the Achilles,” Gravere Silbernagel said, “but they’re all attached.”
Recovery from Achilles ruptures typically requires nine to 12 months before athletes can return to peak performance levels.
