After an unprecedented number of non-contact Achilles injuries in the 2024-25 NBA season, there will be plenty of conversations among league offices and team medical departments about the causes and how to prevent them moving forward.
Several stars in the NBA, such as Jayson Tatum, Tyrese Haliburton, Damian Lillard, and Dejounte Murray, among others, have suffered non-contact Achilles injuries this season alone. A brutal injury that takes a whole year to recover from in most cases, it is something the NBA needs to address.
Tom Brady Attempts To Solve The Raft Of Non-Contact Achilles Injuries In The NBA
Haliburton’s injury not only ended the Indiana Pacers’ hopes of winning a championship, but it may have been the straw that broke the camel’s back, prompting the NBA to examine the causes.
NFL legend and widely regarded as the greatest quarterback of all time, Tom Brady, believes he may have the answer. A fitness savant, he played at an extraordinary level until the age of 45, including an MVP at 40 years old, in large part due to his strict fitness regimen.
Brady, in his newsletter posted on his website on Monday, discussed the shock surrounding Haliburton’s injury and how the NBA can approach it moving forward. He began by saying that he feels Haliburton’s injury has finally forced the media to start asking the right questions: “Why do these injuries keep happening?” “What are teams going to do about this?” He also described how he had yet to hear a good enough answer to these questions, but wanted to address the issue through his newsletter.
In the next section, entitled ‘Reflection,’ Brady described in detail how he turned to trainer Alex Guerrero for relief from early career elbow and shoulder pain. Brady went on to explain how the pain in his first few years in the league had him wondering how long he could play in the league.
Tyrese Haliburton went down with an injury in Game 7. pic.twitter.com/AZ1uk65dFg
— ESPN (@espn) June 23, 2025
Brady revealed that Guerrero’s treatment, known as “pliability treatment,” resolved his pain in only three days. The “innovative treatments, along with related methods, became a major part” of his routine and allowed the seven-time Super Bowl winner to alleviate the tension in various muscles and extend his playing career.
Brady described how an athlete’s pain is a yellow flag and can be compared to a ‘check engine’ light in your car. For instance, going to the mechanic and getting it fixed, we go back to driving the same way we always have. Instead, maintain your car to prevent the engine light from coming on in the first place. “It feels that’s where we are with Achilles injuries.”
Big topic this week on the newsletter! We’re talking injuries: sign up for free at https://t.co/fpOJrxwnLl. One of my favorites to date. pic.twitter.com/dRL60zZlgv
— Tom Brady (@TomBrady) July 7, 2025
Brady went on to say that while the pain management and rehab techniques were at an acceptable standard, the ‘archaic training methods’ ended up being detrimental to the recovery process as they could ‘continue to tighten them [muscles] up’.
A team owner now, Brady has decided to incorporate his former trainer’s ‘pliability’ methods for muscle injuries with the teams he owns, and according to his newsletter, it seems to have already paid dividends for his former NFL teammates and his soccer team, Birmingham City.
“In the meantime, I’ve decided to take a top-down approach and I’ve begun incorporating Alex’s (Guerrero) treatment and training methods into two of the teams I’m involved with, Birmingham City FC and Las Vegas Raiders.”
For Brady, the key to avoiding these injuries in the future isn’t necessarily hitting the weight room harder, but following the muscle treatments he adopted, and he hopes that other teams across sports will follow suit.
