How Bad is an Achilles Tear?

when you think about the worst injuries you've seen on a basketball court your mind may flash to moments like these whether you are working out on your own yes these injuries are gruesome they make you want to throw up but neither ours damaging to the athletes long-term health as the notorious Achilles tear famous NBA players like Dominique Wilkins Kobe Bryant and DeMarcus Cousins have all suffered this injury in the NFL future Hall of Fame wide receiver Steve Smith and retired running back Arian Foster have ruptured their Achilles legendary soccer player David Beckham has ruptured his and apparently Brad Pitt's also ruptured his Achilles while filming Troy there's a fun fact for you and the weirdest part about this injury is that it can seemingly happen out of nowhere with no visible change on the surface even doctors and physicians don't know why some people suddenly rupture their Achilles and others don't which makes it that much scarier despite being a quote-unquote freak injury you can expect about one Achilles tear per year in the NBA and as we'll see one Achilles tear per year roughly translates to one career-ending injury per year in today's video I want to cover the basics of one an Achilles tear is a brief history of the NBA players who have ruptured their Achilles and what that might mean for DeMarcus Cousins and inevitably the unlucky players who will suffer the same injury in the future but first I want to give a shout out to see geek for sponsoring this video Achilles tears are dangerous but there's one will guaranteed way for you do not rupture your Achilles and that is to just watch a basketball game instead of trying to play basketball you guys know what the deal with stinky get see geek is an app that you download on your phone you go on there and you buy tickets to sporting events to concerts the coolest features of this app are a couple of things you can compare prices from different tech you take assembly websites you can preview seats sometimes when you buy a seat online you see something and you see oh that's look so cool see and then you get to the arena and you're like wait I can't see anything well let's see geek they show you the seat beforehand if that sounds interesting to you you can download seat geek by clicking the link in the description or just type in seeking in the app store when you download it use my promo code mdj for $20 off of your first purchase now back to the video okay so what is an Achilles tear the Achilles tear is formerly known as an Achilles tendon rupture tendons are tissues that connect muscles to bones in the case of the Achilles tendon it connects your heel bone to your calf muscle there are many many many many tendons throughout your body but the Achilles tendon is the thickest tendons are tissues so they're meant to stretch every time you run or jump your Achilles tendon is stretching let me just demonstrate my leg okay if you can imagine when you land on the ground your feets like this and if you try to push off from the ground you're just running or jumping you essentially do this so right now this is where your Achilles tendon is fully stretched out and when you push off it shrinks back again you can think of it as a rubber band if that helps to quote orthopedic surgeon dr. Kevin stone it's designed to stretch it's designed to absorb force when the athlete lands from a jump it's designed to provide power for push off when taking a running step people who suffer an Achilles rupture describe the feeling of the injury as being kicked in the leg from behind it's a more common injury than you might think about one in 10,000 people per year rupture their Achilles and among common people it's usually older men it's uncommon in sports injuries for it to be women or to be younger athletes so the unusual Achilles rupture in the basketball player where a female is usually bad luck landing from a bad position many awkwardly hard on the leg it's much more common in a 42-6 year most athletes choose to undergo surgery immediately once the Achilles tendon is ruptured while most can start walking again in a boots within four weeks it takes much much longer to make an actual comeback usually around six months in the NBA even then the athlete needs at least another six months to regain full strength if they ever managed to do so we don't have an official count of how many players in history has suffered an Achilles tear but on a case by case basis almost nobody remains the same after this injury the most famous tear in NBA history is probably Kobe Bryant who tore in March of 2013 and it was effectively the end of his career as a superstar level player even though he was 34 at the time passes prime he was still putting up 27 a game on good efficiency numbers carrying the underperforming Lakers and he clearly wasn't the same after coming back statistically or just by the eye test another recent case is rudy Gay he ruptured his Achilles in 2017 and he came back and had a good but not great season for the Spurs his numbers have dropped dramatically and there's also a notable drop in athletics ISM Wesley Matthews towards Achilles in 2015 his defense has slipped a little bit and he's not quite as good as he was in his Portland days but he's recovered most of his productive value and as we'll see later on the case with Wesley Matthews is actually one of the best in history even though he like almost everyone else has not been as good as before he tore his Achilles tendon another recent case that I don't think people talk enough about and this one's really interesting is Brandon Jennings now it's true that Brandon Jennings his best seasons in his careers were hers earlier days in Milwaukee but his best month as an NBA player was probably the month right before he ruptured his Achilles check this out Brandon Jennings ruptured his Achilles on January 24th of 2015 between December 26th of 2014 to January 24th of 2015 Brandon Jennings averaged 20 points seven assists 40% from three led the Pistons to a 12 and four record and it seemed like that pretty putrid team was turning their season around and might even sneak into the playoffs but then he ruptured his Achilles and that was essentially the end of his career even though he was only 26 he tried to make a comeback he was terrible the Pistons traded him away and then since 2015 he's played for seven different teams including the Shanxi dragons me at this point in my honest opinion he should just go back to playing in China he did average 28 points per game in his first 13 games with China and well I mean I guess to put into context Jimmer Fredette is averaging 37 anyways so the Achilles rupture ruined Brandon's career otherwise he would have had at least a good career as a very very solid six men let's look at some other cases throughout history and I tried to include almost everyone I could find Chauncey Billups ruptures Achille when he was really old 35 years old he was still putting up 15 points per game though after he ruptured his Achilles that was basically an of his career he just that that's that's when it was finally done for him Mack Metz ocher do you guys remember this guy the big Center who shot reace he started 73 games for the Utah Jazz 30 minutes per game in each 2010 season he tours Achilles in the 2010 playoffs played only 30 games over the next two seasons and retired at the age of 32 Anderson Varejao Anderson Varejao this guy has had so many injuries we're talking broken wrist broken ankle back problems he even had a damn blood clot in his lung but which injury was the one that finally did him in yeah you guessed it the Achilles rupture he hasn't been the same since 2014 and now he's in the Brazilian Lafond zoe ellis power forward for the Denver Nuggets in the 90s he played alongside Dikembe Mutombo for some years very athletic dude averaged 21 and 7 right before you towards Achilles at the age of 26 and his career went downhill from there on outs voshon lenard this guy was on some of those 90s Heat teams with Alonzo Mourning and Tim Hardaway one of the best 3-point shooters in the league during his time he towards Achilles at age 30 only played 29 games over the next two seasons and then retired at age 32 even though he could have had a much longer career as a sharpshooter Isiah Thomas not the dwarf I'm talking about the the one that used to kiss Magic Johnson on the cheek yes this one Isiah Thomas Pistons Isiah Thomas this guy towards Achilles in 1994 he was only 32 years old but he just straight-up retired after the injury he didn't play a single game after he tore his Achilles even though he was only twelve thirty-two and still putting up fifteen in seven let's go back even further Elgin Baylor this guy was still balling out at age 35 24 and 10 per game ruptured his Achilles the following season he came back 10 and 5 to put it bluntly Achilles tears ruin careers even if the athlete doesn't retire immediately after the injury they usually don't even last more than two seasons there's although one person in NBA history that has had and I don't use this word lightly a miracle comeback from an Achilles tear and this is not some role player like Wesley Matthews who can just stand in a corner and shoot threes on offense I'm talking about a superstar player a superstar athletes I'm talking about the human highlight Dominique Wilkins one of the best scorers in the 80s and 90s he towards Achilles in 1992 he was 32 years old a little past his prime came back from his Achilles terror and he somehow averaged more points on better efficiency during his comeback season he played over 70 games and 37 minutes per game for the next two seasons while still making the all-star team both seasons he was still dunking on people too it didn't even seem to affect his athleticism his comeback was so perfect that there's no other word to describe it but miracle it's no wonder that DeMarcus Cousins is using Dominique Wilkins as motivation for his own comeback because to put it frankly Dominique Wilkins is really the only one who can be used as motivation for someone who is just torn their Achilles how did he do it nobody knows it's likely some combination of consistent training mental toughness maybe genetics luck I don't know about other sports but at least in the NBA Dominique Wilkins is the only case of a star athlete who I suffered this injury and made a full recovery could the Marcus cousins become the second maybe he's actually pretty young compared to other people other NBA players who tear their Achilles but still the odds are not on his side you can then understand with this history of Achilles tears why no one offered one of the best big men in basketball in long-term contract this summer you can tear your ACL and expect to make a full recovery with the right rehab you can even snap your leg in half and still come back in all-star but an Achilles tear Achilles tear that's something else entirely for an injury that occurs on a somewhat regular basis the Achilles tear is the worst a basketball player can go through hopefully you will see another Dominique Wilkins soon although in 20 years everybody's gonna be walking around with artificial Achilles tendons anyways