In Sport 6 of the 2019 NBA Finals, Klay Thompson went up for a dunk and got here again down by no means the identical.
Thompson’s left knee buckled throughout an ungainly touchdown underneath the rim in opposition to the Toronto Raptors. Within the blink of a watch, the course of Thompson’s profession and the Golden State Warriors had perpetually modified. Thompson’s ACL was torn, and so was his place because the Warriors’ fixed.
Commercial
Thompson had been the Warriors’ flame-throwing metronome, a five-time All-Star with a gritty resiliency that few might match. He had by no means suffered a significant harm or something severe sufficient to knock him out for something past a handful of video games. After which, the large harm. And one other, when his Achilles ruptured throughout his rehab.
That was on my thoughts when Jayson Tatum crumbled to the bottom on Monday evening in Sport 4 of the Jap Convention semifinals. How sudden and surprising it was. How unfamiliar it was. This wasn’t an injury-prone star, removed from it. From a well being standpoint, Tatum was the Boston Celtics’ model of Klay Thompson, at all times there in time of want.
One other ominous line that connects the 2 stars: Thompson was the final participant who performed as many video games as Tatum did via his first eight seasons within the league. On the finish of his eighth season, Thompson broke down. Like Tatum, Thompson was his crew’s iron man. Till, in a flash, he wasn’t.
That is the brand new NBA. Whether or not you’re injury-prone or an iron man, a recreation that’s geometrically increasing and seemingly changing into extra bodily is taking its toll on the brightest stars. Regardless of how clear a participant’s monitor file, the rising churn of the NBA grind appears to spare nobody. Stars in as we speak’s pace-and-space period are getting injured within the postseason greater than ever.
Commercial
Is as we speak’s recreation itself accountable?
Earlier than tearing his Achilles, Jayson Tatum had by no means suffered a significant harm in eight NBA seasons. (Photograph by Elsa/Getty Photographs)
(Elsa by way of Getty Photographs)
Tatum’s peerless workload
When Tatum went down, the All-NBA wing hadn’t proven any warning indicators. The 6-foot-8 champion was busy placing the ending touches on one of many best postseason outings of his profession: 42 factors, 8 rebounds, 4 steals, 4 assists and a couple of blocks, whereas primarily guarding the opposing middle, Karl-Anthony Cities, a person who’s 40 kilos heavier.
He was doing this all whereas approaching a private milestone. Earlier than making an attempt to lunge towards a free ball in Monday’s Sport 4, Tatum had in his sights a exceptional threshold: 25,000 minutes performed. He had logged 24,916 minutes throughout 706 video games in his NBA profession, together with his postseason motion as a member of the Celtics. That’s a mean of 35 minutes per recreation — for 88 video games per season — for eight seasons straight. And squeezing Olympics motion in there, too.
Commercial
To place it in perspective, since Tatum was drafted in 2017, no participant within the NBA has performed extra minutes or extra video games than the previous Duke standout. Not LeBron. Not Nikola Jokić. Not anybody. In truth, Tatum, the No. 3 decide within the 2017 draft, has performed extra minutes than any participant within the 2016 draft class as properly, together with some 2,000 extra minutes than his teammate Jaylen Brown, who was chosen by the Celtics with the third decide a 12 months prior.
Tatum had been the rock-solid basis of the Celtics, having missed just one postseason recreation ever, and that got here in Sport 2 of this 12 months’s first-round collection in opposition to Orlando (a wrist harm). The 27-year-old has already made 5 convention finals, which is extra miles on the tires than most gamers accrue of their whole careers. In truth, Tatum has absorbed a bigger workload — measured in minutes and video games — than the man he was guarding, Cities, who was drafted whereas Tatum was nonetheless in highschool.
In the end, Tatum’s leg gave out underneath all the burden. However he’s not alone in being on the receiving finish of this devastating information. Tatum is the sixth participant within the NBA to endure an Achilles tear this season, becoming a member of former All-Stars Damian Lillard and Dejounte Murray together with Miami’s Dru Smith and Indiana’s James Wiseman and Isaiah Jackson. That checklist doesn’t embrace Denver Nuggets first-round decide Da’Ron Holmes, whose Achilles ruptured throughout NBA Summer time League.
Commercial
And if it seems like star gamers as a complete are lacking playoff video games attributable to harm extra usually as of late, that’s as a result of they’re.
Are Thompson and Tatum changing into the norm?
Thompson’s ACL tear didn’t begin a brand new development, however star accidents started to spike across the similar time of the KD-Warriors’ run atop the league. (In the identical collection that Thompson went down, Kevin Durant tore his Achilles.) In years since, we’ve seen a whopping 40 cases of an All-Star lacking playoff video games.
Extra just lately, Tatum and Lillard are two of 5 gamers who performed within the 2025 All-Star Sport who’ve missed at the least one recreation attributable to harm to date this postseason. When he misses Sport 5 on Wednesday, Tatum is ready to hitch Darius Garland (4), Stephen Curry (3) and Lillard (2) to have missed a number of video games attributable to harm, whereas Evan Mobley missed one.
Star absences within the postseason weren’t actually a factor within the Nineties even when we account for the shorter five-game opening rounds. Certain, there was the occasional Larry Hen or Isiah Thomas absence, however they occurred solely ever so usually. To get a way of how completely different the trendy period has been, contemplate that in a five-year span from 1994 to 2000 (there was no All-Star recreation in 1999), there have been 4 injured All-Stars mixed, which is fewer than we’ve witnessed on this single postseason — or, truly, any of the postseasons since 2018.
Commercial
Once we take a look at the rolling five-season averages, the startling development turns into much more evident. Heading into this postseason, the NBA averaged seven injured All-Stars over the earlier 5 postseasons, a price that has elevated greater than sevenfold because the late Nineties (0.8 per season) and greater than threefold since 2008 when the league had averaged simply two injured All-Stars over the earlier 5 seasons.
And these aren’t one-game absences both. Past the knick-knack harm, Curry may have missed 4 straight video games together with his hamstring pressure whereas Tatum and Lillard’s accidents are extreme sufficient to be thought of career-altering. The accidents are piling up, and we haven’t even reached the convention finals but.
So what’s happening?
Tatum’s workload this postseason included guarding Knicks middle Karl-Anthony Cities. (Photograph by Elsa/Getty Photographs)
(Elsa by way of Getty Photographs)
Support Greater and Subscribe to view content
This is premium stuff. Subscribe to read the entire article.
