NBA commissioner Adam Silver spoke with ESPN's Malika Andrews about the spike in Achilles tears before the 2025 NBA Draft.
Silver and the NBA are looking at Artificial Intelligence for answers.
The 2025 season saw an all-time high in Achilles tears, with a total of seven reported cases, including three that occurred during the postseason. Three Indiana Pacers players suffered torn Achilles this season: Tyrese Haliburton, James Wiseman and Isaiah Jackson all had their seasons cut short.
A couple of notable players, Jayson Tatum and Damian Lillard, also suffered a torn Achilles during the playoffs. Dru Smith for the Miami Heat and Dejounte Murray had their seasons cut short in the regular season.
During Silver's talk with Andrews, he mentioned that the NBA had already been conducting research on the recent uptick in Achilles injuries before Haliburton's gruesome injury early in Game 7 of the NBA Finals. He added that the league has also explored using AI to identify players who may be at risk of a torn Achilles.
"The ability of AI to look at every video of every player could help detect a pattern that leads to Achilles injuries." Silver explained.
The NBA commissioner added that the league had zero injuries of this kind last season.
NBA commissioner Adam Silver speaks with ESPN's Malika Andrews about the increase in Achilles injuries around the league. #NBA pic.twitter.com/qBgWMT65Xh
— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) June 25, 2025
It will be interesting to see what path the NBA takes in figuring out the answer to the increase in these horrid injuries.
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