50 Cent expressed his frustration at the number of large-scale injuries during the NBA playoffs, blaming other people for cursing Tyrese Haliburton, which led to his injury.
“When I find the b***h that put the juju on my man? This s**t ain’t just happening just to be happening, the s**t is happening for a reason,” 50 Cent said in a video. “How everybody with [jersey number] 0 get their Achilles snapped? Everybody’s s**t is popped. Like, everybody’s s**t. Right? You got Damian Lillard, right? Jayson Tatum? And Haliburton.”
50 Cent has a business relationship with the Indiana Pacers through his Sire Spirits brand and G-Unity Foundation. It started back in 2022 and continues to expand. Despite his New York upbringing, he has been a vocal Pacers fan, particularly during their 2025 march to the Finals.
His frustration stems from Haliburton, who wears #0, suffering a torn right Achilles less than five minutes into the first quarter of Game 7. Haliburton played through a calf strain for two games before the rupture. The rupture ended both his night and any chance he had at playing next season.
Haliburton wasn’t alone. Jayson Tatum of the Boston Celtics and Damian Lillard of the Milwaukee Bucks, two other players who wear #0, suffered Achilles tears during the 2025 playoffs. It's a bizarre coincidence that fans quickly pointed out after Haliburton got injured. In total, seven NBA players tore their Achilles tendons this season, the most in league history.
50 Cent Indiana Pacers
NBA Commissioner Adam Silver acknowledged the trend. He cited factors like overtraining, the wear and tear of youth basketball, and players resting as potential reasons. In a recent interview with ESPN's Malika Andrews as part of 2025 NBA Draft coverage, he said the league is turning to artificial intelligence to comb through video and player data in search of patterns.
“I’m hopeful that by looking at more data, by looking at patterns, this is one area where AI — people are talking about how that’s going to transform so many areas — the ability with AI to ingest all video of every game a player’s played in to see if you can detect some pattern that we didn’t realize that leads to an Achilles injury. We’re taking it very seriously,” Silver told ESPN.
