Yahoo Sports senior NBA analyst Kevin O’Connor is joined by NBA contributor Tom Haberstroh to discuss the growing trend of injuries to the leg muscle across the league and why teams are resting players longer rather than risking further injury. Check out the full conversation on “The Kevin O’Connor Show” and subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube or wherever you listen.
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Video Transcript
I talked to two doctors, two surgeons who work on Achilles tears.
Calf injuries, foot problems.
Over 400 calf strains; only two have directly preceded an Achilles tear, and you can probably guess it, 2019 NBA Finals.
Kevin Durant and 2025 NBA Finals, Tyrese Halliburton.
And yet, were seeing time lost due to injury from calf strains triple since last year.
So many teams are cautious, like you said, and I’m expressing caution here; I don’t want to See Victor Wembanyama out with an Achilles tear.
But the fact of the matter is, only two out of over 400 calf strains have, directly, Uh, led to an Achilles tear.
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So, when I talked to these surgeons, they’re trying to make sense of what’s going on here.
Because teams are holding players out from calf strains longer than they typically did.
And now we’re seeing, wait a minute, okay, Achilles tear.
We had seven Achilles tears last year.
How many of them could be directly attributed to weakness in the calf muscle, or somewhere else in the posterior chain.
And the fact of the matter is it’s a big mystery right now.
Kev.
Like the uptick in Achilles tears and calves Strains they’re all trying to study it.
Technology companies race to figure out what is going on in the league, Why 65% of star players are playing rather than 100%.
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This is a huge mystery in the league, and I think there are a lot of factors, It’s not just one; the game has changed, and we can bury our heads and say, Hey, we can keep playing 82 games and pretend like this is just gonna solve itself.
But I think its all hands on deck.
The NBA is trying to figure it out, The doctors are trying to figure out; the teams are trying to figure out.
And, most of all, the players are trying to figure out how to have a long career today.
Fast-paced NBA and how the three-point shot has changed the dimensions of the game, Very different from what we grew up watching, Kev, and youre seeing a lot of confusion Around the league.
What is going on here?
We see Giannis, John Morant and Victor Wembanyama out for multiple weeks with calf strains.
I think people are terrified of what they saw with Tyrese Haliburton.