Lindsey Vonn‘s terrifying crash at the Milano Cortina Winter Games has made headlines around the world. The American skier was seriously injured again by risking and competing after tearing her anterior cruciate ligament 10 days earlier. Is it excessive ambition? Recklessness? It is not a unique case in the world of sport, where more than once the protagonists, in fits of competitiveness, have forced the machine while injured or in precarious physical condition.
Just hours after Vonn’s dramatic downhill crash, the NBA announced that Damian Lillard, one of its stars, would compete in the All-Star three-point contest. His choice would not be news if it were not for the fact that the Blazers point guard, one of the NBA’s biggest stars, has a torn Achilles tendon in his left foot.
He broke down after some calf problems
The 35-year-old, who has spent 14 years in the NBA – from 2012 to 2023 with the Blazers, from 2023 to 2025 with the Bucks and since last summer back in Portland – suffered one of the most delicate injuries in professional basketball on April 27, 2025, during the fourth game of the first round of the playoffs between Milwaukee and Indiana, just after overcoming some calf problems. It was a case of when it rains, it pours, and this time the injury was more serious and required surgery.
The Blazers, the team of his life, not only opened the door for him despite being injured, but also signed him to a new three-year contract. The Portland franchise accepted the medical dictates that predicted that Lillard would miss the entire season. They took it easy, thinking of recovering their icon for the 2027-28 campaign. But suddenly the NBA’s announcement that he will participate in the three-point contest surprised everyone… except him.
The injury is going very well… with patience, doing the things you need to do to keep progressing, you get to a point where you start to see the light at the end of the tunnel
Lillard was injured nine months and 17 days ago, but he feels able to participate in the three-point contest, despite not being recovered from his serious injury. “It’s going very well,” the point guard told NBC Sports. “I think it’s one of those injuries where you have to take your time; you know, it costs what it costs. The first two weeks or maybe two or three months are a little bit frustrating because you’re so limited. But with patience, doing the things necessary to keep progressing, you get to a point where you start to see the light at the end of the tunnel.”
Will he throw without jumping or on one leg?
The Blazers star, one of the best three-point shooters in the NBA and who has already won this contest twice (in 2023 and 2024) out of the six times he has participated, will compete against Devin Booker (Suns), Tyrese Maxey (Sixers), Jamal Murray (Nuggets), Donovan Mitchell (Cavaliers), rookie Kon Knueppel (Hornets), Norman Powell (Heat) and Bobby Portis Jr. (Bucks). In full physical condition, he would be one of the favorites, if not the favorite, but as he is, the question is whether he will shoot without jumping or even on one leg to avoid risks to his injured foot. No one has specified anything about it.
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