ABC/ Screencap
Audio By Carbonatix
During Game 5 of the NBA finals, Warriors superstar Kevin Durant suffered a devastating Achilles injury weeks after coming back from a calf strain injury that will keep him for next season and could affect his free agency.
Kevin Durant injury doesn't look good. Damn pic.twitter.com/RlTY84oDol
— Gifdsports (@gifdsports) June 11, 2019
After the game, Steve Kerr raised some eyebrows when had he revealed that team doctors told Durant he “couldn’t get more hurt” from his initial calf strain.
Steve Kerr on how Warriors and Kevin Durant’s doctors thought the worse that could happen was him re-injuring his calf; Says they were all shocked when he torn his Achilles; Says it was Group decision for him to play pic.twitter.com/8BX6p0UuvX
— Robert Littal BSO (@BSO) June 12, 2019
Full answer from Warriors coach Steve Kerr on the decision-making process that led to clearing Kevin Durant before Game 5 Achilles injury: "Our feeling was the worst thing that could happen would be a re-injure of the right calf. … The Achilles came as a complete shock." pic.twitter.com/I4lt0ZsvFL
— Ben Golliver (@BenGolliver) June 12, 2019
According to Bleacher Report’s Ric Bucher, Durant isn’t happy with the Warriors after the injury and is beginning to question whether the team misled him about the consequences of coming back with a calf strain.
Via 957 The Game
What I’ve heard, through various places, is that he’s not really happy with how things went down because of the injury,”
“There’s an element of, ‘Was I misled as far as injuring myself coming back and playing and having a catastrophic injury like this coming off a calf strain.”
“We don’t know, definitively, exactly what was said, how much was said, how much he was aware of that, but I can tell you that people in the KD camp, people are running for cover because they don’t want to be holding the bag on who led him astray.”
“Because the bottomline is, what Steve Kerr said, ‘We didn’t think he could get injured worse.’ If Steve Kerr was told that, I’m sure KD was told that. And now he’s looking at the prospect of not playing for, possibly, a year and having his free agency upended. I don’t see how that makes him happier with the Warriors than he was before.”
Steve Kerr spoke with Tim Kawakami of The Athletic and denied that Durant or his people are unhappy with the Warriors and explained that not only did Durant’s own specialist clear him to play but so did an independent specialist. via Bleacher Report.
Via Bleacher Report
Kerr told The Athletic’s Tim Kawakami on The TK Show neither Durant nor his representatives have indicated they were unhappy with how the medical process played out as he received clearance and returned to the court.
“We had not only our staff but Kevin’s own personal specialist and then a third independent specialist all clear him to play,” Kerr said. “All three after the fact were shocked at what proceeded with the Achilles. They all said it was the first time they had ever seen this.”
It’s still crazy that all three specialists said that Durant’s injury “couldn’t get worse”.
h/t Dime Magazine