The NBA’s Nightmare: Calf Pressure Risks

Tyrese Haliburton tried to heal his proper calf pressure in time for the largest recreation of his life, Recreation 7 of the 2025 NBA Finals.

A number of hyperbaric chamber classes per day. H-Wave electrical stimulation. Remedy across the clock. All that appeared to work. The opening minutes of Recreation 7 grew to become The Tyrese Haliburton Present. The 2-time All-Star sank three straight 3-pointers to tug the Pacers forward 14-10. To the undiscerning eye, his calf appeared simply fantastic.

Commercial

After which, the present ended.

On the five-minute mark of the primary quarter, the biggest tendon in Haliburton’s physique snapped as he pushed off his proper heel to speed up ahead. His worst fears had been realized: an Achilles tear proximate to the identical broken proper calf. He pounded the hardwood in disbelief. With Haliburton sidelined, the Thunder pulled away late and received by 12.

Hunched on crutches within the hallway after the sport, Haliburton greeted his teammates and was met with hugs and tears. Little did we all know, his harm didn’t simply disrupt the 2025 NBA Finals; it additionally disrupted your complete NBA panorama. Like an earthquake that sends shockwaves for months, Haliburton’s torn Achilles that was preceded by a calf pressure — on prime of the Achilles tears of Damian Lillard and Jayson Tatum within the injury-marred 2025 postseason — basically modified the way in which groups are working this season. And never simply the Pacers, who’ve fallen to 6-18 with out their star.

Commercial

Ja Morant. Victor Wembanyama. Giannis Antetokounmpo. All suffered calf strains within the opening weeks of the season. All sidelined for a number of weeks. They’re the largest names, however there are extra. Much more. Within the first 20 video games of the 2025-26 season, we’ve seen a considerable enhance in calf accidents (excluding contusions brought on by blunt pressure), in accordance with main harm skilled Jeff Stotts of InStreetClothes.com. This time final season, there have been 18 calf accidents on the 20-game mark. This season, it’s as much as 25 incidents, representing a rise of almost 40%.

Extra vital, nonetheless, is the elongated restoration timeline of those accidents. Per Stotts’ knowledge, the variety of video games misplaced as a consequence of calf accidents, by means of 20 video games performed, skyrocketed from 36 to 108. A tripling of final season’s whole.

Luka Dončić was traded, partially, due to his recurring calf strains in Dallas. Antetokounmpo would be the subsequent instance, because the NBA world tries to decipher how his current historical past of calf strains will have an effect on his future. Nobody desires to have one other Haliburton state of affairs — most of all, the gamers.

Commercial

One thing has modified. However pinpointing precisely what’s a thriller that has perplexed NBA groups, followers and the medical neighborhood.

Based mostly on the harm knowledge and conversations all through the league with Yahoo Sports activities, these have develop into the 2 scariest phrases in basketball:

Calf pressure.

‘The NBA could be very involved’

Dr. Richard Ferkel is a prime orthopedic surgeon on the Southern Orthopedic Institute and an assistant medical professor of orthopedic surgical procedure at UCLA. He has operated on over a dozen Achilles tears of NBA gamers, together with these of Klay Thompson, DeMarcus Cousins and Rodney Hood. In February, Thompson introduced Ferkel with a 2022 NBA championship ring as a thanks for stitching his Achilles again collectively and permitting him to one way or the other be, in Thompson’s personal phrases, the second-best scorer on a championship staff.

Commercial

Thompson’s belief in Ferkel is shared by the league workplace. Ferkel serves as a medical marketing consultant on the annual NBA Mix relating to decrease leg points. He’s additionally a key member of a medical committee that the NBA assembled this summer season, staffed by main surgeons, PhDs and researchers who convene to review the current uptick in decrease leg accidents. They meet periodically over Zoom to debate, amongst different matters, the most popular medical difficulty within the league proper now: trying to find solutions in regards to the rise of calf strains and its doable relationship to the spike in Achilles tears.

Groups are being way more conservative in returning gamers again from calf accidents.

Ferkel sees loads of warning throughout the game.

“There’s a concern that calf accidents can result in Achilles accidents, and that that is all as a consequence of incomplete rehab within the calf and favoring one leg over the opposite,” Ferkel stated. “Groups are being way more conservative in returning gamers again from calf accidents.”

Ensuring gamers are totally recovered from calf accidents is a problem when the sport is being performed quicker than it has in a long time and the NBA has added back-to-backs (about two extra per staff in comparison with 2019-20) to the schedule in an effort to accommodate the in-season event, which has a title sponsor in Emirates Airways. The duty of balancing financial and medical constraints just isn’t a straightforward one.

Commercial

“I feel the elevated pace of the sport, elevated athleticism, elevated calls for of the schedule all contribute to those issues,” Ferkel stated.

The answer can’t come quickly sufficient as flat tires proceed to sideline gamers. Ferkel notes that Achilles accidents appear to be down this season, however calf strains are up significantly. It ought to be talked about that former All-Stars Dejounte Murray, Lillard, Tatum and Haliburton together with three different gamers, for a record-setting whole of seven gamers, are nonetheless out with Achilles tears from final season and it’s not clear when they are going to return. Groups will probably be paying these 4 All-Stars a collective $200 million on this season alone.

“The NBA could be very involved,” Ferkel stated, “as are all medical doctors.”

May the accidents have been prevented?

Diagnosing the issue

Like many Davidson alums, Dr. Scott Ellis of the Hospital of Particular Surgical procedure (HSS) in New York has develop into an enormous NBA fan, because of fellow alum Stephen Curry. Over time, Ellis has carried out calf, foot and ankle repairs for NBA athletes, although to not the extent of his colleague Dr. Martin O’Malley.

Commercial

If Haliburton and Tatum win championship rings sooner or later, they may give their {hardware} to O’Malley, or “Marty” as he’s recognized within the sport. He’s a foot and ankle surgeon at HSS and can be the staff surgeon for a bunch of sports activities groups, together with the Brooklyn Nets, New York Giants and USA Basketball. After I talked to HSS for this piece, it referred me to Ellis, who doesn’t work for an NBA staff and may communicate extra freely in regards to the more and more urgent difficulty.

Talking over the cellphone, Ellis expressed an acute sense of urgency relating to the rise of Achilles tears and calf strains. Our bodies maintain breaking down. Billions of {dollars} are tied up in TV contracts, salaries and franchise values. Everybody’s trying to find solutions.

“Managing expectations and outcomes just isn’t simple,” Ellis stated, “as a result of the cash at stake is so excessive.”

In Ellis’ eyes, the foot and ankle accidents we’re seeing within the NBA now are overuse accidents as a result of calls for of the schedule. Sometimes, the widespread accidents within the league had been stress fractures or navicular fractures within the foot from all of the pounding amid 82 video games. However these days, calf strains and Achilles tears are popping up much more steadily — particularly in youthful athletes.

Commercial

“What’s actually superb is you consider the Achilles harm, it normally occurs to the Weekend Warrior — older individuals who aren’t as lively,” Ellis stated. “They go play sports activities on the weekend, unexpectedly, they rupture their Achilles. Often it comes out of the blue with no signs.”

Kevin Durant’s Achilles tear within the 2019 NBA Finals caught out to Ellis for 2 causes. One, his age. He was 30 when he tore his Achilles. That appeared to be younger. However Tatum was 27 when he tore his. Haliburton was 25. His Pacers teammate and former No. 2 total decide, James Wiseman, was 23.

“The rash of this occurring in youthful skilled athletes is certainly new,” Ellis says.

Commercial

Durant’s Achilles rupture additionally was alarming to Ellis due to what got here earlier than it: a calf pressure. In his a long time of apply, a calf pressure wasn’t a typical precursor to Achilles tears.

“The attention-grabbing factor is, traditionally, a calf pressure is considered this utterly separate harm from an Achilles tear,” Ellis stated. “When you’ve got any individual with an Achilles rupture, 9 occasions out of 10 — really, much more, 99% of the time — they don’t have something that you would decide up structurally in an imaging examination on their Achilles.”

The spreadsheets on Stotts’ laptop computer level to the same conclusion, one which raises a lot of thorny questions for medical groups across the sport. In Stotts’ database, he has logged over 400 calf accidents, however he may discover solely two situations of calf accidents that straight preceded a torn Achilles. Each occurred within the NBA Finals: Haliburton in 2025 and Durant in 2019.

That each situations got here on an NBA Finals stage might not be a coincidence. It’s simple to see how danger tolerance could be terribly excessive provided that championship glory is inside arm’s attain. For the greats, a short-term probability at immortality is value risking long-term destroy.

Commercial

A whole lot of gamers have performed deep into the NBA season with out tearing their Achilles. However Haliburton’s high-profile tear and the spate of calf accidents to star gamers speaks to one thing bigger, suggesting that one thing has remodeled exterior of the human anatomy.

“The sport has undoubtedly modified,” Ellis stated. “I’m a Steph Curry fan, however I feel he modified the sport.”

Has the sport stretched too far?

To an uninformed spectator, Curry would appear to be standing on the prime of the important thing going through the basket. Curry is considering in a different way. Within the thoughts of the best shooter ever, he imagines he’s wanting down from the fitness center’s rafters, planted on the epicenter of an imaginary clock. The rim is six o’clock. The half-court straight behind him is 12 o’clock. To his proper is 9. To his left, three.

Commercial

It’s the summer season of 2013, and Curry thinks this clock and this drill has an opportunity to alter every thing. He’s not but an All-Star, however he’s made the leap because the Warriors’ main scorer. There are extra leaps to make. All-Star, perhaps MVP. Hopefully, NBA champion. That’s the imaginative and prescient.

Danny Inexperienced and Kawhi Leonard made him return to the drafting board. Curry and his longtime coach, Brandon Payne of Speed up Basketball, had watched movie of the 2013 playoffs and the way Spurs coach Gregg Popovich had put taller wings on Curry to dam out any daylight on the perimeter. The Spurs had crushed the Warriors soundly within the second spherical. Curry wanted to reinvent himself.

“That’s the place all of it modified,” Payne stated.

They referred to as it Lego house creation. Payne and Curry put two or three footwork ideas collectively to create vital house to get the shot off based mostly on what the defender does. That entire summer season, Curry labored the clock in numerous gyms, adhering to Payne’s orders as he shouted completely different numbers.

Commercial

“Twelve!” Payne blurted out.

Curry stepped backward. Shot.

“Twelve to 9!”

Curry stepped again after which proper. Shot.

“Six to 12 to 4!”

[Haberstroh: The NBA star crisis worsens]

Over time, Payne added hybrid strikes to shift to sure spots like they had been sweating by means of a recreation of Tornado. If the purpose is to get to 12 o’clock, Payne would shout a combo transfer — say, 10 o’clock to 2 o’clock — in an effort to juke the imaginary defender sufficient to finally plant each ft, each palms in a 12 o’clock spot.

“If you happen to’re wanting on the face of a clock,” Payne stated, recalling these numerous classes within the fitness center, “we wished to ensure we may create house going to each single quantity on the clock.”

Commercial

The important thing, he stated, is that Curry’s trainers would load the motion with resistance bands and heavy lifting in an effort to correctly strengthen Curry’s muscular tissues to execute the brand new movement patterns. He needed to put together his physique to carry out.

And so Curry determined to implement the stepback and aspect step. Not are gamers coaching to do set photographs and pull-up jumpers in entrance of them. To fight the rising measurement and athleticism of defenders, scorers like Curry are pressured to go in reverse and sideways in methods by no means thought doable.

As an instance the evolution, contemplate that in 2013-14 Curry led the league with 69 stepback 3s, per Kirk Goldsberry’s monitoring. Two MVP awards and three NBA championships later, the league began catching on to Curry’s modern strikes. By 2018-19, the league chief in stepbacks, Houston’s James Harden, registered 613, a tenfold enhance in simply 5 years.

Have been we considering on the time, properly, the NBA goes to have loads of calf and Achilles points? No, we weren’t considering that on the time.

Stephen Curry spawned a league full of individuals making an attempt to be Stephen Curry — regardless of in the event that they’re 6-foot-2 like Curry or 7-5 like Victor Wembanyama, who averages over six 3-point makes an attempt per recreation in his NBA profession — a lot of that are hitting completely different numbers on the clock. Everybody desires to be Steph, however a separate query is whether or not their our bodies are geared up to deal with it.

Commercial

Dončić, Haliburton, Lillard and Tatum are among the most modern creators in terms of attending to their 3-point shot and utilizing counters to assault the specter of the deep ball. The longer 3-pointers additionally imply longer runways, which require stronger brake techniques to decelerate and end on the rim after going downhill. They usually all use “false steps” to speed up ahead with a push-off on a again foot and make the most of exhausting closeouts on their 3-point photographs. Is it a coincidence that they’re beset by calf and Achilles points?

Trying again, Payne didn’t contemplate the long-term implications of the clock drill. However like many others across the league, he wonders about how the sport has modified, the position of the 3-point shot and whether or not it’s a think about what we’re seeing.

“Now, had been we considering on the time, properly, the NBA goes to have loads of calf and Achilles points? No, we weren’t considering that on the time,” Payne stated.

The race to unravel the difficulty isn’t only a medical one. It’s being waged in Silicon Valley.

The seek for solutions

Brett Burman thought there needed to be a greater method. After working for over a dozen years in teaching and front-office roles in school, the NBA and abroad main the London Lions to the 2023 EuroCup Last 4 because the staff’s common supervisor, Burman understands why so many groups are frightened of non-contact accidents.

Commercial

He left London in 2023 with a basketball government’s model of what he calls “PTSD.” After signing three former NBA gamers to key roles, he watched them go down with main non-contact accidents. Sam Dekker, Tarik Phillip and Kosta Koufos all suffered key accidents that ruined the staff’s possibilities of reaching its potential.

He remembers going right into a hallway and FaceTiming the staff doc about whether or not to let Dekker again into the sport or maintain him out. In a matter of seconds, they needed to make the decision.

“And we made the flawed one,” Burman says. “I had the gamers’ well being — he was robust as s*** — and the burden of the entire group on my shoulders. I didn’t have the information, the science, and we made the flawed determination.”

Commercial

Following that have in London and all his years in entrance workplaces, Burman linked up with Adam Petway, the previous director of efficiency of the Washington Wizards, and based a brand new firm referred to as OnSport AI that tries to revolutionize harm prevention in professional sports activities. One NBA staff has signed on as they pilot their software program, and they’re in talks with a number of different groups for his or her companies.

OnSport AI makes use of pc imaginative and prescient and machine studying fused with monitoring knowledge to determine harm danger in real-time throughout competitors. The corporate’s software program tracks coordinates for joints — assume hips, ankles, shoulders, elbows, and many others — for all 10 gamers on the court docket and compares it to every gamers’ historic file going again years, because of TV broadcasts.

How did that participant bounce? Off one foot or two? How did he transfer laterally? How did he land? Are his hips degree or favoring one aspect? In laymen’s phrases, OnSport AI seeks to detect if one thing in a participant’s biomechanics is “off” and alerts the consumer when danger of harm reaches sure thresholds.

Image, as an example, as a substitute of a stamina meter above a participant in video video games, the display screen reveals a color-coded injury-risk meter that quantifies a participant’s probability of struggling a non-contact harm based mostly on a proprietary system.

Commercial

Burman’s firm and different tech outfits are racing to unravel the issue. On Tuesday, main knowledge supplier Sportradar and bio-analytics firm Orreco introduced a brand new participant well being and data-tracking partnership that guarantees to “maximize availability” and observe workloads in the same method as OnSport AI. In January, the NBA introduced it was launching a brand new biomechanics program to attempt to scale back accidents in mild of the uptick in participant absences. 4 firms had been chosen to collaborate with the NBA in session with P3, a number one sports activities science lab in Santa Barbara led by Dr. Marcus Elliott.

Henry Abbott’s new ebook, “Ballistic,” which profiles Elliott and his main work in injury-prevention science, might be described as a 300-page ode to our hips. A lot of the illnesses within the NBA athlete may be traced again to irregularities within the hip and the way it absorbs and facilitates the ever-expanding, thunderous forces within the recreation.

Commercial

It shouldn’t be a shock to be taught, then, that Curry worships on the altar of hips. In 2015, the Warriors’ then-director of athletic efficiency, Keke Lyles, advised me Curry, the smallest man on the staff, was second strongest on the staff within the deadlift class, usually lifting 400 kilos. To enhance flexion and mobility, he obsessed over workout routines just like the single-leg hip airplane yoga transfer.

Strengthening his hips was the important thing to saving his ankles, which had hampered him early in his NBA profession. (So did Ferkel’s surgical procedures.) Notably, Curry, who has weaponized the 3-ball greater than anybody, has not been listed with a calf pressure or Achilles harm in his 17-year profession.

One of many key indicators for OnSport AI’s know-how focuses on the coordinates of the ball-and-socket joint, the hip. The precise patterns they flag in hips and different physique elements are tightly guarded; Petway and Burman name it their secret sauce, honed by means of hundreds of hours in NBA circles and poring by means of the literature. The false step, it seems, is a central character in Petway’s printed analysis on Achilles tears, however figuring out the underlying reason behind Achilles ruptures is extra nuanced. The false step — the motion that befell Haliburton, Lillard and Tatum — might be higher described because the straw that broke the camel’s again, however not essentially deserving of essentially the most blame.

Placing apart the medical issues, good luck eliminating the false step in basketball. Convincing elite hoopers to alter their instinctual motion patterns is a frightening process. Maybe much more difficult is getting sign-off from the Nationwide Basketball Gamers Affiliation to trace real-time harm danger utilizing fancy algorithms with staff staffers on the controls.

Commercial

In June, Adam Silver stated on ESPN the league was utilizing synthetic intelligence to resolve it and shaped panels to deal with it. The addition of cutting-edge know-how and the formulation of committees may dramatically enhance the difficulty of calf strains and Achilles tears. It is also years earlier than conclusions may be drawn, and even longer to be carried out at scale. Time is of the essence. Inside six months of the NBA launching the biomechanics tech initiative in January, the world watched as three of the largest names within the sport — Tatum, Lillard and Haliburton — went down with Achilles tears.

However one subtraction may assist — and quick.

Is lowering the schedule the answer?

The looming variable over all of those decrease leg accidents is, after all, the 82-game schedule that has been in place for almost 60 years.

Commercial

It’s a contentious difficulty that requires all stakeholders — house owners, gamers and TV companions — to return collectively and reevaluate your complete system. With the 3-point arc stretching the size of the sport additional and additional out, the sport is way more demanding. Steve Kerr raised issues to Yahoo Sports activities this previous Could within the wake of so many high-profile accidents.

Dr. Ferkel noticed Kerr’s quotes and made notice of his remarks in our dialogue in regards to the present points. After I requested Ferkel if he thought the league ought to scale back the variety of video games within the schedule to extend the variety of restoration days, he stated it’s one thing that comes up steadily.

“We’ve mentioned this at size, relating to limiting the variety of video games within the schedule, particularly back-to-backs,” Ferkel stated. “The league is this fastidiously they usually’re looking for knowledge to clarify if there’s a relationship between back-to-backs and accidents.”

Commercial

What’s his view?

“I really feel there could also be a relationship, however we’d like extra science to know for certain,” Ferkel stated.

Over at HSS, Ellis shares the sentiment that lowering the variety of video games might be an answer, if the economics may be labored out. He factors out the economics won’t be working for followers now.

“It’s an enormous variety of video games that they are taking part in, day in and time out, some back-to-back,” Ellis stated. “We have seen coaches resting their gamers after which the league will get on them as a result of persons are paying tickets to look at these gamers. One thing has to present.”

Too typically lately, everybody agrees, that one thing is the Achilles tendon.

Ellis comes again to Curry and the way the sport is being performed now. The pace of the video games. The pace of the schedule. Tatum, Lillard and Haliburton had been three of the highest 3-point shooters within the recreation, all struggling Achilles tears in massive moments. Can we actually eradicate the 3-point shot and the way they get to these photographs?

“I would not say a stepback by itself is sort of a main trauma,” Ellis stated. “However perhaps they’re doing it again and again and simply … it is stretching the bounds.”