Injuries Are The NBA’s New Achilles Heel & It Needs To Be Rehabbed

On Sunday, late in the first quarter of Game 7 of the NBA finals, fans watched as Indiana Pacers superstar, leader, and closer, Tyrese Haliburton (the player who was so cold during his finals run that he earned the nickname “The Haliban”) writhed in pain on the floor, banging his fist and hanging his head. The replay, which was shown far too many times, confirmed that something in his leg had snapped. It was heartbreaking for a team that scraped and clawed its way to this final game. It would be confirmed that Haliburton, who was suffering from a calf strain when entering the game, had torn his Achilles. What could have been a riveting final game to the NBA season was a dud at best. While the final score would make it seem closer than it was, the Oklahoma City Thunder blew the Pacers out to go on to win the 2025 Championship.

During this off-season, the NBA is going to have to remedy the glaring problem they have with keeping stars healthy so it doesn’t dilute its product and run the risk of alienating fans who aren’t paying to see bench players.

I know, I know.

I can hear the old heads now claiming that this generation is made of weak boned, feeble-kneed, fragile stars that need to be on minute restrictions when they never had to. And they are right to a degree. It does appear that today’s stars seem to be more susceptible to injuries, but a lot of that can be attributed to advancements in the games. Despite playing an 82-game season since the 1967-68 season, the progression of the big man, no longer posting up in the lane and only being required to check a player from three inches away from the basket, is a thing of the past. In today’s NBA game, big men can handle the rock, shoot threes, and take players off the dribble, which means much more work for players forced to check them.

Players nowadays have rigorous off-season conditioning, play simulated game-style practices, and run way more than any player from the 60s, 70s, 80s, or 90s, which means that the modern-day player’s body is prone to breakdown.

At the start of this season, Tom Haberstroh wrote a piece for Yahoo Sports noting that the NBA had a ‘missing stars’ problem due to injuries. In it, Haberstroh argued that the opening weeks of the NBA season was going to be a snoozefest because several stars were still nursing injuries.

“Philadelphia 76ers star guard Tyrese Maxey went down with a hamstring injury that will sideline him for multiple weeks. Then Zion Williamson. Then Ja Morant. Then Kevin Durant. Then Chet Holmgren. Each is expected to be sidelined with timetables measured in weeks, not days.”

He added: “Teams are fighting to keep their biggest names on the floor, and many are losing that battle. Joel Embiid and Kawhi Leonard haven’t even played a game yet. Jaylen Brown (missed four games,) Stephen Curry (three), Zach LaVine (three) and Anthony Davis (one) have been banged up. Houston’s Fred VanVleet (hamstring) is set to miss his first game of the season Tuesday. Paolo Banchero is out. So are Scottie Barnes, Dejounte Murray, and Khris Middleton. All told, when you dive into the numbers, the NBA is bordering on a health crisis.”

And here’s the rub, because the NBA knows that coaches were trying to manage players the past couple of years, they implemented a Player Participation Policy and within just the second year of mandatory player participation, star players missed an average of 28 games and not one single star played all 82 games of the 2024-2025 season, according to True Hoop.

NBA players are being overworked; more is expected of them throughout the notoriously long season, which is leading to their bodies breaking down.

“In this post season alone, Haliburton, [Milwaukee] Bucks guard Damian Lillard and [Boston] Celtics wing Jayson Tatum all sustained the same injury,” NBC News reports.

Which might mean that there is a connection between the number of games and the rigorous workouts that NBA players undergo to keep their bodies limber for the long season. NBA Commissioner Adam Silver, who profits on producing the most talented productions, of course, doesn’t see it this way.

“I don’t really see the benefit to reducing the number of games,” Silver told members of the media earlier this month. “People used to say you should reduce the number of games because it will lead to reduction in the number of injuries. There’s absolutely no data to suggest that.”

I wonder who would conduct this study? Would that be the NBA? And would a study that confirms the hypothesis that long seasons lead to more injuries help the NBA’s profit?

I think we can all agree that the modern-day game is a completely different game from the one they played in the 80s and 90s, where players could jog up the court to run set plays. Most modern NBA players are looking to create fast breaks whenever the opportunity arises.

“Modern NBA players cover an average of 2.5 to 4 miles per game, due to the faster pace and increased emphasis on running and conditioning,” according to Scout Life magazine. “This difference is partly due to the evolution of the game’s style, as well as the implementation of advanced tracking technologies that allow for precise measurement of player movement.”

Nothing was going to keep Haliburton out of Game 7. He played his whole basketball career for that moment, and unfortunately, he didn’t get the storybook ending he hoped for. But sometimes it’s the work of the coaching staff to take the decision out of the player’s hands, and if the commissioner would like to shorten the season or lift restrictions on allowing players rest during the season, that wouldn’t hurt either.