Klay Thompson isn't surprised that league followers across the globe questioned Kevin Durant's heart before the Golden State Warriors superstar suffered a devastating injury during his return to action in Game 5 of the NBA Finals. Why? As Thompson tells it, the “nature” of sports inherently lends itself to those on the outside questioning the objectives of the all-time greats that play them.
“That's just the nature of the game, whether KD, Muhammed Ali, LeBron, Michael, who's a baseball player?” Thompson said on Wednesday of criticism aimed at Durant before Game 5, per Ann Killion of the San Francisco Chronicle. “All are questioned.”
A much more prevalent question after Durant's injury, which he confirmed on Wednesday was a ruptured Achilles tendon, is whether or not Golden State rushed him back too soon from the calf strain that caused him to the team's nine prior postseason games. To a man, Warriors players, coaches, and executives have denied that Durant's best interests weren't at the forefront of the decision-making process when it came to his availability for Monday's game, insisting the choice to play him was one made collaboratively with Durant, his representatives, the training staff, and more.
It's fair to wonder, however, why Golden State seems so surprised that Durant taking the floor while less than fully recovered from a calf strain could put his Achilles at risk, as Steve Kerr said on Wednesday. Before Game 5, when assessing the viability of Durant's return, many doctors publicly spoke about the potential for injury to his right Achilles considering his right calf clearly wouldn't be 100 percent.
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