In true competitive spirit, Kevin Durant says he was going to return to the 2019 NBA Finals to help his Golden State Warriors teammates “no matter what,” despite the fact that he was recovering from a calf injury at that time.
Durant's decision to play in Game 5 was a fateful one, however, as he wound up injuring his right Achilles in the process. The former No. 2 overall pick came up lame on what seemed to be an ordinary crossover move. He fell to the floor, grabbed the back of his leg, and was later helped off the floor.
Though he was already recovering from the aforementioned calf ailment, Durant says no one was going to stop him from playing in the Finals:
“I wanted to play,” Durant said via Rob Lopez of The Athletic. “It was the Finals. Nobody would've stopped me at that point. I was gonna play, no matter what.”
Kevin Durant on returning to the court during the NBA Finals:
"I wanted to play. It was the finals….. nobody would've stopped me at that point. I was gonna play no matter what"
Says he didn't know he was at high risk for an injury:
"shit happens"
— Rob Lopez (@r0bato) October 8, 2019
Though it wasn't his fault alone, Warriors general manager Bob Myers accepted the blame for Durant's Achilles injury:
“I don’t believe there’s anybody to blame, but I understand in this world and if you have to, you can blame me,” Myers told the Associated Press. “I run our basketball operations department. And to tell you something about Kevin Durant, Kevin Durant loves to play basketball, and the people that questioned whether he wanted to get back to this team were wrong.”
Durant, who joined the Brooklyn Nets over the summer, is expected to miss most (if not all) of this season as he recovers. Hopefully, he'll be back on the floor sooner rather than later.
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