Is Jayson Tatum’s Achilles injury the cost of the modern game and incr

In Game 6 of the 2019 NBA Finals, Klay Thompson went up for a dunk and came back down never the same.

Thompson’s left knee buckled during an awkward landing under the rim against the Toronto Raptors. In the blink of an eye, the course of Thompson’s career and the Golden State Warriors had forever changed. Thompson’s ACL was torn, and so was his place as the Warriors’ constant.

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Thompson had been the Warriors’ flame-throwing metronome, a five-time All-Star with a gritty resiliency that few could match. He had never suffered a major injury or anything serious enough to knock him out for anything beyond a handful of games. And then, the big injury. And another, when his Achilles ruptured during his rehab.

That was on my mind when Jayson Tatum crumbled to the ground on Monday night in Game 4 of the Eastern Conference semifinals. How sudden and unexpected it was. How unfamiliar it was. This wasn’t an injury-prone star, far from it. From a health standpoint, Tatum was the Boston Celtics’ version of Klay Thompson, always there in time of need.

Another ominous line that connects the two stars: Thompson was the last player who played as many games as Tatum did through his first eight seasons in the league. At the end of his eighth season, Thompson broke down. Like Tatum, Thompson was his team’s iron man. Until, in a flash, he wasn’t.

This is the new NBA. Whether you’re injury-prone or an iron man, a game that is geometrically expanding and seemingly becoming more physical is taking its toll on the brightest stars. No matter how clean a player’s track record, the growing churn of the NBA grind seems to spare no one. Stars in today’s pace-and-space era are getting injured in the postseason more than ever.

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Is today’s game itself to blame?

Tatum’s peerless workload

When Tatum went…