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Before Haliburton today, the dreaded Achilles tear claimed two other victims earlier in the playoffs — Milwaukee Bucks’ Damian Lillard and Boston Celtics’ Jayson Tatum.
Jayson Tatum, Tyrese Haliburton, Damian Lillard all suffered from Achilles injuries this NBA Playoffs (AFP, X)
It’s never easy to see a young superstar fall victim to a horror injury, especially in the biggest of stages.
But what particularly put Indiana Pacers’ Tyrese Haliburton’s Achilles injury under the scanner is the fact that he is not the only one to have suffered this blow during this NBA Finals season.
The Indiana Pacers star was just one of the three All-Stars who seemed to have been plagued by an unforeseen ‘curse’ this postseason.
The dreaded Achilles tear claimed two other victims earlier in the playoffs — Milwaukee Bucks’ Damian Lillard and Boston Celtics’ Jayson Tatum.
Lillard sustained the injury during the team’s 129-103 loss to the Indiana Pacers during the Bucks’ first-round matchup in the NBA Playoffs.
Minutes into the contest, Lillard stumbled while trying to grab a rebound. He was able to redirect the ball, but fell to the ground and immediately grabbed his left ankle.
In the case of the Celtics, Tatum, 27, sustained the injury during their Eastern Conference semi-final against the New York Knicks.
While chasing a loose ball, his leg suddenly gave out in a non-contact play. He immediately clutched at the area above his ankle, visibly in pain, with his face buried in a towel — a difficult sight for teammates and fans alike, burying the Celtics’ playoff hopes along with it.
And now, it was Haliburton, who, in the first quarter of Game 7, was left in misery — after he tumbled to the court in a heap, and immediately began punching the floor in frustration, as the Pacers slumped to a 103-91 loss eventually.
The common denominator amongst them all? Their jersey number.
In what seems to be a wild coincidence, all three of the superstars, who don the number 0 for their respective teams, were struck down by the NBA gods (or demons, in this case, perhaps).
Much like them falling victim to agonising pain mid-game months ago, Haliburton also went down during the historic NBA Finals 2025 Game 7 on Sunday.
All three injuries, which ruined title-winning prospects for three NBA stars in a single season, have amplified theories and criticism from all sides.
Much criticism was laid on Pacers’ head coach Rick Carlisle for having risked Haliburton’s future by forcing him to play in Game 7, after the ‘right-calf’ injury scare earlier in the series.
But most importantly, Haliburton’s addition to the three-player-Achilles injury “curse” rang in concerns about how the NBA was functioning at the expense of athletes’ well-being: a topic that the league is yet to address properly.
As many fans pushed for the season to be cut short to prioritise players’ health, it has to be noted that NBA Commissioner Adam Silver only responded to these pleas recently, that too to no real avail.
Despite the piling up of injuries, Silver passed on the idea to shorten the 82-game season.
Will the league own up to what can be deemed as an unfairly demanding schedule? Or will it just be brushed off as ‘part and parcel of the game’?
After training in the field of broadcast media, Siddarth, as a sub-editor for News18 Sports, currently dabbles in putting together stories, from across a plethora of sports, onto a digital canvas. His long-term…Read More
After training in the field of broadcast media, Siddarth, as a sub-editor for News18 Sports, currently dabbles in putting together stories, from across a plethora of sports, onto a digital canvas. His long-term… Read More
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