Is the Achilles the new ACL?

In the '80s, a torn ACL was the nightmare injury for basketball players. The recovery took a year+ and the player was unlikely to return at the same level, especially in terms of running, jumping, and athletic explosiveness.* And it felt like a product of the evolution of the game--players ran and jumped liked never before and maybe the human body was not meant to do this.  But medical science has made it easier for players to return more quickly and in the same form.

[*] Bernard King was one of the few to pull it off after his 1985 injury--he missed about a year, returned after a year without that explosiveness, then took another year to get that back--he averaged more than 20 ppg for three straight years, beginning in the third year after the injury.

The torn Achilles Tendon has become the new nightmare, both in its increasing commonness and in it effects. Three star players--the Bucks' Damian Lillard, the Celtics' Jayson Tatum, and (in last night's Finals Game 7) the Pacers' Tyrese Halliburton--tore their Achilles. Kevin Durant tore his in Game 6 of the 2019 Finals. Lillard and Halliburton (and Durant in 2019) were dealing with calf injuries, continued to play through them, and suffered the injury. The injuries happen on similar plays--an attempted quick first step from a standing or slow position, in which the calf extends. High-def video and slow motion allows you to see a "wiggle" in the leg. And the players recognize the injury in an instant. It also is interesting that four major examples occurred during the playoffs--when the intensity and physicality ratchets up.

The injury takes more than a year to recover from. So given how late in the season, Lillard, Tatum, and Halliburton are expected to miss all of 2025-26. The question now is whether they can "be the same players"--which in Tatum's case was First-Team All-NBA and in Halliburton's was an emerging best player on a championship team. Durant has done it, after missing about 1 1/4 seasons.