The Ringer dropped an article on the modern day NBA breaking its players with stats that back it up
https://www.theringer.com/2026/05/14/nba/nba-injuries-leg-calf-hamstring-achilles-data
TLDR: Modern day go-to moves like step back 3s are destroying player’s calves
The calf, he explains, is particularly vulnerable to that combination because of our anatomy. “The calf muscle has pretty short fibers, all things considered,” Lieber says. When the ankle rotates and the knee extends at the same time, it puts immense strain on the muscle.
That strain is amplified for bigger players. “My calf and Shaq’s calf have about the same length of fibers,” Lieber says, “but he just has maybe 10 times what I have.” The fibers don’t scale with the body. The bones—the levers—do. “So a bigger person, when they rotate their knee joint or their ankle joint 20 degrees, they stretch their muscles relatively more.”
The same move, performed by a larger body, is more dangerous. Not because the player is weaker, but because the geometry is worse. That’s bad news for a league that’s demanding that larger and longer players increasingly add false steps, stepback 3s, and Euro-steps to their repertoires.
When I describe the stepback 3—in which the plant foot lands with the knee extended and the ankle flexing simultaneously—to Lieber, he doesn’t hesitate. “You step back and then take a giant push off with your legs and calf. You countermove to activate and stretch the calf, and then you pile a big activation on top of it.” Stretch, activate, explode—in that order, faster than the nervous system can protect against it.