For the first time in years, Ben Simmons had given us a reason to believe.
That's what made the news land so heavily. Because it wasn't just that Simmons had torn his Achilles; it was that it happened now, days before the NBA season, just as he'd started to answer a question that had followed him for half a decade.
Every Achilles tear is cruel, but this one felt slightly more unjust than most. For years, the knock on Simmons was that he didn't care enough. He was supposedly a gifted athlete who'd drifted on talent alone; someone who enjoyed the fruits of the game more than the game itself. This comeback was quietly dismantling that idea. He was returning from back injuries that very well should have been debilitating, which isn't something you just 'talent' your way back from that.
So, on the eve of the NBA season, that comeback being cut short by something out of his control was particularly jarring. It robs us of seeing whether the Australian with the greatest peak in the NBA, and someone who had the potential to be an all-time great, could return to that trajectory.