Kevin Durant and Tyrese Haliburton entered their respective NBA Finals elimination games with strained right calves.
Each wound up leaving early with torn right Achilles tendons.
Durant, a perennial All-Star and the league's 2014 MVP, missed the whole next season as he recovered from the injury and now Haliburton, the Indiana Pacers' two-time All-Star, could face a similar fate. Predictable? Perhaps. Both knew the risks when they opted to chase a championship, and both wound up paying the price when their tendons gave out on pro basketball's biggest stage.
"There's no question you're at a higher risk of worsening an injury or another injury occurring because maybe your gait is off a little bit or the muscle firing isn't as good," said Dr. Kevin Farmer, an orthopedic surgeon and chief of sports medicine at the University of Florida. "To Tyrese's credit, maybe he wasn't as healthy as he wanted to be, but he was willing to go out there and try to perform to win that championship for the team.
"He made a decision to take that risk, and I think there should be some credit there for trying."