Kevin Durant made his much-awaited debut for the Brooklyn Nets on Sunday following a full season on the sidelines recovering from a gruesome Achilled injury he suffered during the 2019 NBA Finals. Golden State Warriors head coach Steve Kerr was an avid spectator of KD's comeback game, and according to the three-time NBA champion shot-caller, Durant's road to recovery should only serve as inspiration for Klay Thompson.
Thompson, who recently suffered a season-ending Achilles injury, will be forced to sit out his second consecutive season. Coach Kerr opened up about how devastating this development was not only for Thompson, but for the entire Warriors squad as well. Nevertheless, Kerr is adamant that his sharp-shooting two-guard will be able to draw inspiration from Durant's journey:
“Yeah, for sure. I mean, we want Kevin to get back to the level where he was prior to that injury,” Kerr said on a recent interview on Sirius XM NBA Radio. “It's great to just see him healthy and playing again and enjoying the game, and for Klay, it's just devastating. You know, he loves the game so much and to miss an entire season, to look forward to the next year, which he did all last year and anticipate being back out, and then all of a sudden, going through the exact same thing with another season-ending injury. I don't know, maybe Grant Hill is the only guy that I could think of who had to sit out multiple seasons with injuries, at least players of that caliber. So we are all just feeling really, really sad for Klay, but it will inspire him, I'm sure, to see Kevin back out there healthy again.”
It's hard to question how different Thompson will look like once he is able to come back next season. By then, he would have gone through not one, but two career-threatening injuries.
Despite the dire circumstances, however, Kerr remains positive, and he is hopeful that Thompson will reemerge from all this as still one of the best shooters in the league.
Follow Us
Subscribe