NBA versions of the Aaron Rodgers injury

Gordon Hayward: Hayward signed with the Boston Celtics in the summer of 2017, reuniting with his Butler University head coach Brad Stevens, but just over five minutes into Hayward's first game, he suffered a season-ending broken ankle. Boston traded for Kyrie Irving that same summer and believed it was a true championship contender, but with Hayward out, the C's lost the Eastern Conference Finals to LeBron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers in seven games.

Hayward was never quite the same player, and after Boston fell short in the Eastern Conference Finals again in 2020, it sign-and-traded Hayward to the Charlotte Hornets.

Grant Hill: In the summer of 2000, the Orlando Magic dismantled their team to create room to sign Grant Hill, Tracy McGrady and Tim Duncan. They struck out on Duncan, but adding 21-year-old T-Mac and six-time All-Star Hill created huge excitement in Orlando. Unfortunately, Hill's ankle injury, which he suffered near the end of the 1999-2000 season and subsequently played through in the playoffs, was misdiagnosed by the Detroit Pistons: The ankle was broken.

After dishing 10 assists in Orlando's opener, Hill played just three more games that season due to the balky ankle. He played 14 games the next season, 29 the next and missed the whole 2003-04 season after he had ankle surgery and a staph infection nearly killed him. Improbably, Hill ended up playing through age 40, but Orlando never met its high expectations.

Bill Walton: Walton hurt his foot during his MVP season of 1977-78, and then after getting a painkilling injection, he broke a bone in his foot playing through the injury in the playoffs. His relationship with the Portland Trail Blazers soured. Walton sat out the 1978-79 season and then signed a record seven-year, $7 million deal with the San Diego Clippers, who also traded two players and a first-round pick to Portland.

Walton re-broke his foot in his fourth exhibition game and played only 14 games his first year with the Clippers. He missed the next two full seasons before getting a dramatic surgery that let him come back and play sporadically, though the Clippers remained woeful. Walton blamed himself for the Clippers' struggle in his hometown and their 1984 move to Los Angeles. Perhaps worse was the team's 1981 sale to cheapskate owner Donald Sterling, later banned for life for racist remarks.

Steve Nash: Much was made about Dwight Howard's strained relationship with Kobe Bryant after the Los Angeles Lakers traded for the big man before the 2012-13 season, but it was Steve Nash's knee injury that truly derailed that team. Nash fractured his knee in only his second game with Los Angeles, and seven years later, Nash said he still hadn't healed from the trauma to his tibia-fibula joint.

It turned into a nightmare season for the Lakers, with the team firing coach Mike Brown after five games, hiring Mike D'Antoni (who was still recovering from knee replacement surgery) and seeing the 35-year-old Bryant go down with a torn Achilles after a brutal stretch where Bryant was playing nearly 48 minutes a game to will the short-handed Lakers to the playoffs. Howard left for Houston after the season, and Nash — and Bryant — were never the same.

Zion Williamson: We saw heralded rookies like Joel Embiid and Ben Simmons miss their first seasons, but that was for the tanking Philadelphia 76ers. When Zion Williamson got hurt in the first game of NBA Summer League, it changed the course of the New Orleans Pelicans franchise. The Pelicans had All-Star Jrue Holiday, future All-Star Brandon Ingram, sharpshooter JJ Redick, plus Lonzo Ball and Josh Hart to complement their young star. But without Williamson, the season fell apart.

Williamson showed huge promise, scoring 11 points in the first half before leaving after bumping knees. Perhaps it was a bad omen that the day of Summer League action was canceled after a 6.9 magnitude earthquake hit Las Vegas late in the game.

Williamson has played only 114 games so far in his four-year career, a huge disappointment for such an anticipated prospect.