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When Tyrese Haliburton crumpled to the ground in the first quarter of Sunday night’s Game 7 NBA Finals loss to the Oklahoma City Thunder, his injury was almost instantly obvious. The Pacers superstar (yes, we can call him that after this playoff run) had torn his right Achilles, and replays very obviously showed the distinctive pop that signals the injury.
Haliburton’s injury was the third torn Achilles of these NBA playoffs. Earlier this postseason, Celtics star Jayson Tatum suffered the exact same injury. So did Bucks guard Damian Lillard, who tore his left Achilles in the first round of the playoffs (against Haliburton’s Pacers).
It’s a vicious injury that can take months to recover from—Tatum, Haliburton, and Lillard won’t be playing for the first few months of next season. And the reasons why so many NBA players have suffered Achilles tears in these playoffs are worth exploring.
Why did Haliburton’s injury happen?
In the hours since Haliburton’s injury, there have been some lousy theories. Two shaky ones: The first is that maybe the season’s too long (except it’s the exact same length it’s been for, you know, decades, and players have even more rest between playoff games now). The second is that maybe it’s about the sneakers, as ex-NBAer Nick Van Exel suggested on Twitter.
More likely in Haliburton’s case: He was already playing through an injury that made him more susceptible to this one. Haliburton had played Game 6 (and part of Game 5) with a right calf strain, so his body was already compensating for the injury, placing increasing demands on his ankle and foot (and Achilles) for stability and power. All of that put his right ankle and Achilles at higher risk of injury. (This was similar to Kevin Durant’s Achilles tear in the 2019 NBA Finals, when he also was dealing with a nagging calf issue.)
Let that be a reminder to all guys that you need to be extra-cautious against hooping with calf issues. Yes, you can work around it, but the more explosive you try to be, especially when you’re taking a quick step backwards, then aiming to drive hard to the hole, the more you’re challenging your Achilles in a vulnerable position.
What is the Achilles tendon?
For those who don’t know, your Achilles is an ultra-strong, thick tendon that attaches your calf muscles (gastrocnemius and soleus) to your heel bone. It’s a critically powerful tendon too, one that can withstand up to four times a person’s bodyweight, and it’s stretched whenever we flex our foot hard, trying to bring our toes toward our shins (an idea called plantarflexion).
It’s a crucial tendon for athleticism, too, one that’s meant to be flexible as well as incredibly strong, sturdy, and stiff. Anytime you land from a jump or take a small step backwards to plant and drive forward in sport, your Achilles teams up with your calf muscle to decelerate your heel down to the ground. It then takes some of that energy and uses it to help you drive forward into your next athletic move.
NBA athletes like Haliburton push the tendon to its limits when they drive to the hole. Very often, in order to truly accelerate and beat a defender, they work to get “lower” than the defender, and their shin winds up nearly parallel to the ground, at least as they make their first step. That moment comes after a split moment in which the foot, aiming for a powerful pushoff, also had a lot of contact with the ground. Shifting between these two moments requires the Achilles to transition between being flexible (allowing for lots of plantarflexion) then elastic and stiff (to drive the athlete forward).
Those are serious demands, and this becomes something you need to pay even more attention to once you hit your weekend warrior days in your 40s. No, you’re not delivering Haliburton-level forces and speed, but we often lose Achilles flexibility as we age, if we don’t stretch it. Then you try to drive hard at your local LA Fitness pickup game, and boom–Achilles injury.
How to avoid Achilles injuries
Few athletes will take on the forces that NBA guards do when they take that quick step backwards, plant, then accelerate forwards. But both NBA players and everyday guys should take steps to train and prep their Achilles for those forces, as a means of preventing injuries and building lower-body awareness.
Here are a few things to think about.
Achilles mobility
We have a host of solid stretches for your Achilles here, and all are worth experimenting with. The biggest thing you want to do, though, whether you’re doing standing calf stretches or other stretches, is work to get your knee out in front over your toe as much as possible on each stretch, while still keeping your heel on the ground.
When most people do Achilles “stretches,” they tend to emphasize the feeling in the calf. But the Achilles tendon itself gets the most stretch when the heel is kept flat, and the shin shifts forward. It’s this position that needs the most training and awareness (and it’s this position that Haliburton actually hits moments before his injury, with a shin nearly parallel to the ground while his foot and heel are practically still planted).
Train this daily, and often. And as you get stronger, continue to train it too. If you’re strength training and building lower-body muscle, often you’re gradually also losing some mobility and elasticity in your lower body, unless you’re making a concerted effort to maintain that.
Bounce exercises
Moves like jumping rope or even single leg hops should be in every weekend warrior’s training regimen, and honestly, they’re probably more important than leg presses and calf raises and squats. They’re critical to teaching your Achilles tendon to handle the forces of landing and then immediately translate those forces into directional energy and power.
So at least a few times a week, you’ll want to hop on one foot for 20-30 seconds, and hop on both feet for 20-30 seconds. Do 3-4 sets of each. Or jump rope. You can also get more advanced and hop laterally (off one foot or both feet) for time or low reps. Increasingly advanced hoops players can set up wedges (very similar to what we might set up for heels-elevated squats), and jump onto those lateral with one or both feet for low reps.
All of this is prepping the ankle and Achilles tendon to handle forces in multiple directions upon both landing and exploding up. Injuries like Haliburton’s occur when he’s planting then quickly changing directions, in that moment when he’s absorbing energy from the ground and looking to translate it forward. Learning to do that before stepping onto the court is key.
Is there a move athletes should learn?
Haliburton’s injury also occurs in part because of how many athletes take that backwards step that sets up their drive: They do it with the backstepping foot essentially pointed in the direction they want to go. This requires massive flexibility and elasticity at the ankle joint.
A different approach that could potentially produce the same level of power might be something like the T-step. This obviously would need to be trained and drilled (and for some athletes it might not be natural – and in the heat of battle, athletes will always go to what feels most instinctive and natural). It requires a bit more at the hip joint, in terms of fluidity and speed. It also may or may not be efficient for all body types.
But if you’re a weekend warrior, it’s worth training this and working on such drills. Give your body as many options as possible to create power and athleticism.
Fitness Director
Ebenezer Samuel, C.S.C.S., is the fitness director of Men’s Health and a certified trainer with more than 10 years of training experience. He’s logged training time with NFL athletes and track athletes and his current training regimen includes weight training, HIIT conditioning, and yoga. Before joining Men’s Health, he served as a sports columnist and tech columnist for the New York Daily News.
