It’s been 30 years since a former Charlotte Hornets forward, Scott Burrell, tore his Achilles tendon during a game against the Philadelphia 76ers, and the memory is fresh in his mind. 

“I went to push off and it just popped, and I thought someone was behind me and kicked me,” Mr. Burrell told the Sun. There was no one there, however. He had partially torn his Achilles tendon, an injury that takes NBA players anywhere from nine months to a year of recovery before they can get back on the court. Mr. Burrell returned to the court for the Hornets the following season and went on to play until 2001, winning a championship as a member of the Chicago Bulls in 1998. 

Mr. Burrell was among the 45 Achilles tendon ruptures, 42 of them “full” ruptures, in the NBA between 1990 and 2023, according to a 2024 report in the Orthopaedic Journal of Sports Medicine.  But now the NBA is experiencing an Achilles injury “epidemic.”

Seven players tore their Achilles tendons in the 2024-25 season alone, the most in one season in NBA history. 

Three All-Star players suffered Achilles tears — guard Damian Lillard of the Milwaukee Bucks, forward Jayson Tatum of the Boston Celtics, and guard Tyrese Halliburton of the Indiana Pacers — during the NBA playoffs.  

Why these injuries have been happening in greater numbers, and to the game’s biggest stars, is a mystery to many, leading some to point fingers at the style of shoes players wear and the number of games they play in a season.

A former NBA All-Star, Kevin Garnett, pointed a finger at calf strains, which both Messrs. Halliburton and Tatum had leading up to their injuries. 

“If anybody knows the body, your calves are your brakes. The one thing that supports the calves is your Achilles. So if your calf is the first thing to shut down, you have to think about how things are built,” Mr. Garnett said on his “KG Certified” podcast. Both Messrs. Halliburton and Tatum were playing through calf strains prior to tearing their Achilles.

Before his injury, Mr. Burrell was playing through Achilles tendonitis and heel bursitis, the result of a “pump bump,” or Haglund’s deformity, in which a bony growth puts pressure on the joints of the feet. It was his second season in the NBA, and his game averages of 11.7 points and 5.7 rebounds had him on pace for the league’s Most Improved Player award.

“Obviously it was healed, and I was ready to go, but in the back of your mind, I’m like, ‘I don’t want to do that again,’” Mr. Burrell, who since 2015 has been the head coach of Southern Connecticut State University’s men’s basketball team, tells the Sun. 

The recent rash of Achilles injuries has ex-players like a former Los Angeles Lakers guard, Nick Van Exel, blaming the low-cut shoes NBA players today regularly wear in favor of high-tops. 

“There have been Achilles tears throughout the years but my thoughts on them is that they happen more now and I think it has something to do with them (damn) lows the players wear nowadays. Cover them ankles up fellas,” he posted on X.

Mr. Tatum was wearing his signature Jordan Tatum 2 sneakers when he tore his Achilles during a playoff game against the New York Knicks. Mr. Lillard was wearing his signature Adidas Dame 9 sneakers during his injury. Mr. Halliburton was wearing his signature Pumas. All three sneakers are considered “low-top” shoes.

A Houston Rockets forward, Kevin Durant, who also plays in signature-brand Nike low-cut sneakers, disagreed with the growing chorus of low-cut sneaker critics, which included Cam’ron, an American rapper, who pleaded in an Instagram post, in caps, for players to “STOP WEARING THESE LOW CUTS AND 3 QUARTERS.”

“Brother, that has absolutely nothing to do with these injuries,” Mr. Durant replied on Instagram. 

In 2019, Mr. Durant, while playing for the Golden State Warriors, tore his Achilles during an NBA Finals game against the Toronto Raptors while wearing low-top shoes. 

“Sneakers can play a secondary role; on their own, they may not exactly cause a tear, but with overuse injury already present, they may not help,” a clinical professor of orthopedics at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, David Gitlin, tells the Sun. “The most obvious part of the [footwear] that can increase load on the Achilles tendon is a low heel or minimalist style of shoe that is more common in recent years,” Dr. Gitlin added. 

A big culprit, in Mr. Burrell’s mind, is the proliferation of Amateur Athletic Union leagues, where teenagers spend the entire year playing nothing but basketball. Mr. Burrell was a three-sport athlete at Hamden High School in Connecticut, excelling in football and baseball (he was drafted by the Toronto Blue Jays in 1990) before joining the University of Connecticut Huskies basketball team. He would become the first-ever college basketball player to register 1,500-plus points, 750-plus rebounds, and 300-plus steals in his collegiate career. He believes playing sports on grass helped him turn into “a complete athlete” and develop new muscles that he otherwise wouldn’t have if he played just basketball year-round. 

“The kids I recruit now, I do love to hear about them playing football, but you have to get who you can get when you’re recruiting,” Mr. Burrell tells the Sun.  “It’s scary because all these kids do is just play basketball year-round.”

AAU teams sometimes play more than five games during a weekend tournament. It’s this overspecialization of one sport, especially for young adults who are still developing, that can cause long-term effects on their lower body. 

“Over-specialization can lead to increased risks of overuse injury because the athletes don’t have variability in movements if they are too specialized. Over-specialization can also, in some cases, result in muscle imbalances that are sport-related,” the doctor of physical therapy and exercise physiologist at Gait Happens,  Milica McDowell, tells the Sun.

Despite spending 17 years in the NBA, Alton Lister said he was never the same after he tore his Achilles tendon while playing for the Golden State Warriors in 1989. Now coaching basketball in the Philippines, Mr. Lister tells the Sun that players like Messrs. Tatum and Halliburton are suffering too much wear and tear at a young age.

“A lot of these guys have been playing nonstop since they were kids — AAU, camps, year-round training with no real break. The body eventually gives out. Shoes might play a small part, but this is mostly about overuse.” Mr. Lister tells the Sun. 

Messrs. Halliburton and Tatum played for the USA basketball team in the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris, with Mr. Tatum fresh from winning an NBA championship. 

“They went from an NBA season to the Olympics to a new season. … These guys do so much,” Mr. Burrell tells the Sun. 

The NBA commissioner, Adam Silver, disagreed with some assertions that the number of games NBA players now play throughout the year is the primary culprit. 

“It is interesting, when we look back at the last 10 years, the majority of Achilles injuries happened before the All-Star break, so it’s not clear it’s the number of games,” Mr. Silver said during a recent interview. 

To help get to the root of the problem, Mr. Silver said he is turning to artificial intelligence technology to “ingest” all the video “of every game a player has played in to see if you can detect if there’s some pattern that we didn’t realize that leads to Achilles injury.”

Mr. Silver arguably has good cause for concern. Messrs. Tatum, Lillard, and Halliburton are among his league’s biggest draws. 

“What can the NBA do? They make a lot of money,” Mr. Burrell said. “You’re still going to have Achilles tendon tears. It’s just part of the game.”

While players can return from Achilles surgeries fully healthy, the mental impact of the injury can stay with an NBA player forever. 

“I think the hardest part is trusting it again. I still never fully trusted my Achilles after it healed,” Mr. Burrell tells the Sun.

“It was tough, no sugarcoating that. Physically, it hurts, but the mental side is where it really hits. You start questioning yourself. But if you stay locked in and stick to the rehab, you come out of it stronger—mentally and physically,” Mr. Lister tells the Sun.