Seven Achilles injuries in one season: NBA launches probe against spike of cases, says AI may help spot hidden patterns
NEW YORK, June 26 — NBA commissioner Adam Silver said yesterday the league is studying a rash of recent Achilles tendon injuries, days after Indiana's Tyrese Haliburton became the latest player to be hobbled by such an injury in game seven of the NBA Finals.
Silver, speaking to ESPN before the start of the NBA draft at the Brooklyn Nets' Barclays Center arena, said that there was no convincing evidence that the length of the NBA season was a factor, but that a range of causes are being studied.
'We are looking at it,' Silver said, 'and in fact, we had already convened a panel of experts before Tyrese's most recent Achilles rupture.
'So we had seven this year,' he added. 'We had zero last year under the exact same circumstances.'
He said the NFL had had a rash of Achilles injuries as well, and the purpose of convening the panel of experts 'is to try to figure out what's going on.'
Haliburton was already playing with a sore calf when he was stricken in the title-deciding game seven against the Oklahoma City Thunder, who claimed their first title since moving to Oklahoma in 2008.
The 25-year-old had surgery on Monday and is at risk of missing the entire 2025-26 campaign.
Haliburton was the third player to suffer a torn Achilles in this post-season, after Boston's Jayson Tatum and Milwaukee's Damian Lillard.
Critics point to the gruelling 82-game regular season, but Silver said the most important thing was to try to find a pattern.
'It's interesting, when we look back at the last 10 years the majority of the Achilles injuries have happened before the All-Star break, so it's not clear it's the number of games,' he said.
Silver said training players undertake in the off-season, and even stress on their bodies playing youth basketball — before they ever even start their pro careers — could be a factor.
He suggested that Artificial Intelligence could eventually be a useful tool in pinpointing what needs to change.
'This is one area where AI people are taking about how that's going to transform so many areas — the ability with AI to ingest all video — of every game a player has played in to see if you can detect there's some pattern that we didn't realise that leads to Achilles injury.
'Whether it's associated with calf injuries we don't really know,' he added. 'But, look, we're taking it very seriously.' — AFP
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