Sacramento Kings forward Rudy Gay had to be carried off the court in the third quarter of a 106-100 loss to the Indiana Pacers Wednesday night after suffering what is thought to be a torn left Achilles tendon.
In all likelihood, Gay will miss the rest of the season with an injury that typically requires six months to recover from. The thing is, Gay told the Kings before the season started that he plans to opt out of his contract and become an unrestricted free agent next summer. But with the kind of injury that has ended the career of many NBA players, Gay might have a hard time finding a team that is willing to take a chance on him in free agency.
According to a study published in the American Journal of Sports Medicine in 2013, researchers at Drexel University studied 18 NBA players who suffered ruptured Achilles from 1988-2011 and found 39 percent never played another NBA game, and those who did return saw a significant decline in playing time (h/t USA Today Sports).
Dallas Mavericks swingman Wesley Matthews is an exception. After tearing his Achilles in March 2015 while playing for the Portland Trail Blazers, he still managed to land a lucrative deal with the Mavericks that offseason and his numbers remained the same for the most part.
Gay’s best bet is to return to the Kings next season and collect the $14.3 million he’s owed for 2017-18. But if he’s confident that he can return to form after recovering from such a serious injury, he might take his chances on the free-agent market. Prior to the injury, Gay was being talked about as one of the better players available for trade at the Feb. 23 deadline, so there’s some interest there.
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