A scary pattern that emerged toward the end of the 2024-2025 NBA season was top superstars going down with injuries. Jayson Tatum, Kyrie Irving, Damian Lillard, and Tyrese Haliburton all suffered an unfortunate setback that may keep them out for an entire season. Hali’s was the worst, as it came in Game 7 of the NBA Finals, one that his Pacers ended up losing.
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The weirder part of the injuries was that they were all pretty common. Hali, Tatum, and Dame all tore their Achilles, and nearly all of them were dealing with a calf strain prior to that. It seems like the two are connected. Well, another top star in the league had a calf strain this postseason, but he avoided something more severe. That player? Donovan Mitchell.
ESPN analyst Brian Windhorst broke the news about Mitchell during the Cavs’ playoff series against the Pacers. “Donovan Mitchell has been dealing in this series with a calf injury. It was not serious enough to be on the injury report but he was definitely dealing with it and admitted he was going through something.”
Spida opened up about this strange string of injuries during an interview with Taylor Rooks for Bleacher Report. The conversation was started by Rooks, who revealed that Mitchell had called her earlier in the season and admitted that he was upset that news of his injury had gone out to the public.
“I think for me, I didn’t want it to be a thing,” said Mitchell regarding the news getting out before addressing how dangerous that type of injury has become. “I think last year I had a calf strain, and I didn’t play the last three games. You’re starting to see why, unfortunately. You look at Tyrese, Dame had a calf injury. I don’t know if JT had anything in his calf.”
When Rooks asked why he was so distraught about his calf news getting out, he explained that he didn’t want there to be any excuses for his team not succeeding. “I don’t want no other BS. I’m hurt. Everybody’s hurt. We’re still going to find a way regardless. Everybody’s in pain. That for me, was just my own thing that I wanted.”
“It was said, and that’s a thing that people now know and a thing that people talk about. For me personally, I just wanted it to be win, lose, or draw it was because of what happened,” he added.
It’s quite admirable for Mitchell to admit that. His team straight up lost to the Pacers. There’s no way around it. So his getting a free pass of “but Spida was injured” didn’t sit right with him. More players should take accountability like that. It’s the postseason. Everyone is tired, and most guys ARE hurt.
Adam Silver stated that the NBA is looking into why these injuries are happening
Give Adam Silver some credit: he is plugged into the injury conversation. It would have been easy for the commish to write it off as a strange circumstance, but instead, he revealed that the league is actually looking into figuring out what is causing these calf strains and Achilles tears.
“We’ve already convened panel of experts. Some experts think it may have more to do with youth ball in the offseason,” said Silver during NBA Draft night.
He then stated that players tend to work out even harder in the offseason than they do in the regular season, and noted that it could be a reason for the uptick in them getting hurt.
“We had seven this year, we had zero last year under the same exact circumstances,” added Silver. “We’re taking it very seriously.”
And they should be taking it seriously. The Pacers didn’t just lose the Finals, they lost the core of their offense. The same can be said for Tatum and the Celtics and Lillard and the Bucks. These are huge faces that the NBA will not have for the 2025-2026 campaign. That’s bad for business.
It does give other players a chance to step up. But it also creates a gap in returning fans who may be demoralized because their team’s top guy is now riding the bench.
