Golden State Warriors forward Kevin Durant announced on Wednesday that he suffered a ruptured Achilles in the team’s Game 5 NBA Finals win over the Toronto Raptors on Monday.
Since Durant went down with what appeared to be a serious injury, a lot of second guessing has taken place around the water cooler.
Did Golden State rush Durant back from the calf injury he suffered in the conference semifinals? If so, did it have an impact on this latest injury?
In talking about this ahead of Game 6, star Stephen Curry defended his Warriors organization in a big way.
We’re always going to see second guessing when it comes to something of this magnitude. That’s just the nature of the beast.
What we do know is that Warriors general manager Bob Myers was choked up when announcing Durant had suffered an Achilles injury Monday evening.
It’s also impossible for anyone who has not been a part of Durant’s recovery to draw a real conclusion here.
What we do know is that a calf not being 100% can have an impact on other areas of the lower body. That includes the Achilles.
Warriors head coach Steve Kerr covered this in detail Wednesday, indicating that those within the Warriors’ medical staff told him that the worst that could happen to Durant was the star forward aggravating his calf injury.
Durant also got a second opinion from a doctor from outside the Warriors’ organization.
For his part, the forward made sure not to blame anyone following his announcement of the devastating injury.
“Like I said Monday, I’m hurting deeply, but I’m OK. Basketball is my biggest love and I wanted to be out there that night because that’s what I do,” Durant wrote. “I wanted to help my teammates on our quest for the three peat.”
With free agency looming for Durant, it remains to be seen what might happen. His Warriors are down 3-2 in the NBA Finals against Toronto with Game 6 Thursday night in Oakland.