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I’m curious because if I was in KD shoes I would of suited up no doubt. I already have made 187 mill, won 2 chips, 2 finals MVPs, and the chance to come back and win a chip in this fashion is a storybook situation most people only can dream about.

I can’t think of almost any reason I wouldn’t suit up and play. Same as Klay wanting to get out there. Same as Looney. Same as KD. If you feel you can contribute and it’s at this stage then you go out there.

Also, we as normal people sacrifice so much that I don’t see how it’s remotely different. If I can sacrifice my sleep, my health, my stress and pull a 90 hour work week to get a project done to help my company succeed I don’t even get why multi million athletes who can get out there and give it a go should be second guessed in hindsight. For every Grant Hill story there’s countless times when people come back from injury and are just fine. Curry’s played through so many ankle situations, even Durant had the Jones thing earlier in his career, Russ played on tweaked knees, Iverson on a broken body, etc. If we only use the times it goes horribly bad as the measuring stick of course it looks bad in general.

Where does the line get drawn in the sand for all the people blaming GS? Should Klay play? Should Kobe have played after hurting his ankle? Should Lebron have played after “breaking” his hand? Should Jordan have taken DayQuil and got a good rest in? It’s really irritates me to have people who go out and play hurt for free stuff like intramural championships second guessing an organization.

For some people it’s all dollars. And that’s fine. Protect your investment. But can’t also expect them to be the sort of player that inspires you and becomes an icon of the sport. Ali and Frazier damn near died in a boxing ring for their passions and were coddling athletes now and blaming organizations for the snowflake mentality. I’m not an old guy and not saying we need to go back to the era of hard knocks but at some point why even play if not for the glory (or pay money to watch them play).

I don't think that's the question at hand?

It's would you have played IF you knew there was a chance of serious injury. That IF is the big question now.

I recently watched the Thrilla in Manilla doc on HBO. One quote stuck with me. That's how people die in boxing. The fight is bigger than life or death. The two men would rather die than to lose to the other man. Now obviously this is on a MUCH lesser scale than that but that's more of a great athletes mentality. Playing sports are an inherent risk. You can't worry about what may happen too much. As long as life, limb, or eyesight or serious irreversible damage isn't involved, I think most are predisposed to play when a championship is involved.

Nah. Draymond said they can win without me, so I'd let him try and wouldn't risk further injury.

Nope, I play for myself and my family. I don't own the Warriors organization anything. 100% hired gun and dgaf.

I would have played for sure.
I just play for fun and, while not the same severity, have played through many injuries and through pain, when it's a team setting and a meaningful game was on the line.
But I'm not wired the same as most people either. Not saying my answer is right.

Since I can easily put myself psychologically in KD's shoes to judge what I'd do given his immensely unique 30 years of accumulated stimuli impacting the choices he makes.

I would’ve played, but it’s up to Bill Myers.

If I was 34 or 35, yes, under that age no. It’s so rare to have a job you actually love and have passion for, I personally would not want that career cut short.

Partially torn acl, yes I’d play, hamstring, yup, achilles??? No way in hell.

There's a reason that people on here that are saying no aren't in the NBA. These guys have busted their butts their whole lives for chances like this and if its at all possible for them to play then they will.

Gonna be hard to get alot of yes votes here considering that we have the hindsight of what happened to KD fresh in mind

I'm tempted to just say "yes" but really it's impossible to say it just like that, it all depends on how I feel about my body and mindset going into game 5.

I think a lot of people here are using hindsight when they are saying they wouldn’t play.

No one, especially KD, thought he’d go out there for 12 minutes and tear an achilles. The same way Gordon Hayward didn’t expect to destroy his entire foot in game 1 of the season. Nobody actually has any idea what’s going to happen when they step out there. Nor do people know if they’ll get hit by a car on the way to the arena. Life is a set of calculated risks based on the rewards that you want. Best believe any fear I have of getting in an accident is outweighed by my desire to earn money and provide for my family. Similarly,
I believe for most athletes the fear of injury or reinjury is usually outweighed by the desire to compete and win at the highest levels (and or get paid). If KD was a scrub player and “toughed” it out and played and did well I’m sure he’d earn himself more money. Like Looney - he’s more valuable to GMs and teams because they see the sacrifice he’s willing to make to help his team win a chip.

So for the people that say no does that mean when you aren’t 100% and it’s a team sport like hoops or soccer you haven’t gone out and played? I remember in high school playing through a sprained wrist, sprained ankle, taping up fingers, wearing a lower back brace etc. KD was out there doing dunks, dancing, lots of different activity before stepping out there.

MeloRoseNoah wrote:Nope, I play for myself and my family. I don't own the Warriors organization anything. 100% hired gun and dgaf.

Pretty much this. Especially after that Myers "joke" at the championship parade last year. F them, if I'm out there I'm full on Uncle Dennis mode. I wanna be 101 % healthy. No IT / Ainge funny business for me.

Yeah I would have played

Of course I would have played and every professional athlete would. If you know you can help your team and not be a liability out there, you'd always want to play. It's not like you know in advance when or how you're going to get injured. People act like Durant knew for certain he was getting injured.
Larry Bird used to say that unless he's got a broken limb or is physically unable to walk on the floor, there is no injury that would keep him from playing. He is just one example of someone who never missed games due to minor injuries such as a broken finger or bruised whatever.

Hell no i wouldn't I'd be hurting the team more than i would help it.

i wouldve wanted to play but i hope everyone around me did their best to prevent that.

moderndarwin wrote:I think a lot of people here are using hindsight when they are saying they wouldn’t play.

No one, especially KD, thought he’d go out there for 12 minutes and tear an achilles. The same way Gordon Hayward didn’t expect to destroy his entire foot in game 1 of the season. Nobody actually has any idea what’s going to happen when they step out there. Nor do people know if they’ll get hit by a car on the way to the arena. Life is a set of calculated risks based on the rewards that you want. Best believe any fear I have of getting in an accident is outweighed by my desire to earn money and provide for my family. Similarly,
I believe for most athletes the fear of injury or reinjury is usually outweighed by the desire to compete and win at the highest levels (and or get paid). If KD was a scrub player and “toughed” it out and played and did well I’m sure he’d earn himself more money. Like Looney - he’s more valuable to GMs and teams because they see the sacrifice he’s willing to make to help his team win a chip.

So for the people that say no does that mean when you aren’t 100% and it’s a team sport like hoops or soccer you haven’t gone out and played? I remember in high school playing through a sprained wrist, sprained ankle, taping up fingers, wearing a lower back brace etc. KD was out there doing dunks, dancing, lots of different activity before stepping out there.

Played soccer all my life..Everytime i got a hamstring strain it was like getting stabbed in the leg everytime i tried to play. I used to tell my coach to let me play..i ended up hurting the team more than i helped it. Couldn't move well, sure i could jog but i couldn't maximise myself at all. You're not helping the team being out there not even at 70% health. I seriously doubt Durant was even 70% healthy.

djsunyc wrote:i wouldve wanted to play but i hope everyone around me did their best to prevent that.

Precisely this. The Warriors failed him in several ways.

You shouldn't throw a guy into the middle of the finals that suffered a muscle injury which will predispose him to other/further injury. Also, they had no legitimate plan on integrating him into the game, they just ran him out there with no minutes restriction, role reduction or anything of the sort. Worst of all, if what Rachel Nichols and the ABC broadcast crew reported pre-game about the medical staff saying he couldn't do any more damage to the injury he already had (the calf tear), that was very poor medical consultation. If even that were true in the literal sense, the risk of other injury, especially achilles injury is increased. To me, the training staff just got it wrong.

I think most people would play in KDs shoes. That’s why the team / medical staff should have stopped him.