INDIANAPOLIS — It’s an injury Pacers fans know all too well, thanks to Game 7 of the NBA Finals.
Achilles tears plagued the league this year, ending not only the season of some superstars, but effectively sidelining them for part, if not all of, next year, too.
Recovery tends to be long and grueling on athletes, who sometimes don’t always snap back to full form. On Wednesday, NBA Commissioner Adam Silver said a panel of experts will study Achilles tears with a simple goal in mind – to cut down on the number of them, and local experts have some ideas on how to do just that.
His fall was heard across the country, his pain evident to everyone whose heart dropped with Tyrese Haliburton’s in the first quarter of the game that could have brought the team its first championship title in history on Sunday. As Pacers fans anxiously awaited confirmation of his diagnosis, medical experts knew exactly what they had just witnessed in real time.
“Most patients, when they have an Achilles rupture, say it feels like somebody kicked them in the back of the leg or they got shot in the back of the leg. It’s a very immediate sensation,” said Dr. Patrick DeHeer, podiatric residency director for Ascension St. Vincent. “You can’t hold it against him [Tyrese Haliburton] for going out there and putting it on the line for his team, but there’s a risk, especially if you’ve had a calf strain. You’re at risk for that thing rupturing and that’s exactly what happened in this case.”
DeHeer spent 30 years as the Pacers’ team podiatrist, from 1992-2022. As the NBA faces a rise in Achilles tendon injuries, he believes many tears could be prevented by regularly screening athletes for tight calf muscles, which are often a major factor, followed by a special stretching and maintenance therapy plan.
“The stretching that they do for warming up is called dynamic warmup,” DeHeer explained. “It’s more like walking lunges and things like that. What I’m talking about is static stretching – using a brace to stretch your calf muscle. And that – you really need to do for an hour a day.”
DeHeer designed a brace for that purpose, saying the sports medicine world has been hesitant to promote static stretching because of a misconception that it reduces explosiveness, meanwhile, he says research shows the opposite is true – that it increases performance.
“The way we repair Achilles tendon ruptures has changed. We’re doing more of a minimally invasive approach, which is great,” DeHeer added. “Also, we’ve come to understand that really getting the tension on the tendon is critical to re-establishing the strength which is really what’s important for the long-term functionality of the player.”
DeHeer said this kind of injury has been a focus of his whole career. It’s now also becoming a focus for future medical careers.
“We’re counseling our students, our medical students and those in the next generation of orthopedics to be aware of this injury and again, to emphasize prevention,” said Dr. Bryan Saltzman, an assistant professor of orthopedic surgery and chief of sports medicine at IU Health.
Saltzman says the spike in this kind of injury could be due, in part, to the fast-paced, explosive nature of NBA basketball today. He projects Haliburton is looking at a 9-12 month recovery period, and facing an average return-to-play rate of 75-80%.
“Of those that return, about 30% of them have been shown to be out of the league within three years,” Saltzman said. “So, it’s an uphill battle but the resources are there for him and certainly the passion seems to be there for Tyrese Haliburton.”
“I’d be optimistic to hope he’d be back next year,” DeHeer said. “I think it’s probably safer to sit out next year.”