Kevin Durant Achilles Injury Mega-Thread (Keep discussion here, please)

[RalphWiggum]

I think Durant joining the Warrior's 73 win team after blowing a 3-1 lead to them is the biggest bitch move in sports history but I'm also devastated to see what happened to him tonight. As a Raptor fan a win tonight would've been tainted by the handful of **** cheering when he went down.

I feel awful for a guy who was clearly pressured to play when all involved should've known this was a possibility. I say this as someone who felt the pop in my calf about 2 months ago. Obviously I'm not a pro athlete but even now during regular day to day activities I can still feel something isn't right. To put KD into the fire of an NBA finals was pure greed on Golden State's part and something that will rightfully haunt this franchise for years.

All the best on a speedy and full recovery KD.

[Raps in 4]

I wonder how the union feels about this.

[GeorgeMarcus]

Human empathy transcends basketball

[MeloRoseNoah]

The Warriors organization exerts this pressure of KD through their media ballboys. I don't buy the bs spewed from this organization. If anything, it exposes the Warriors organization as a cutthroat franchise run by slave owners who treat players like trash.

Slave owners that pay their players tens of millions per year.

I can say the same thing for all corporate America.

So, franchises shouldn't be getting butt-hurt when players like Lebron treats teams like used condoms. It's a mutual understanding between the pimp and the hoes.

[WestGOAT]

Depends. They told him that this couldn't happen. Kerry said that and Windhorst reported that as well. That the worst thing could happen was he could hurt his calf. The fact he played just a few minutes and tore his Achilles says that was not true.

Warriors have been telling people for days that if he does come back he can't get more injured. That going to put pressure on him to play.

Doris Burke reported the same. "No risk of injuring his Achilles"

Watch on YouTube

Makes you wonder indeed if the Warriors purposefully mislead KD feeling safe enough to play.

Not a good look for GSW.

[Lowtech801]

No it's not fair to say that and it seems like a disrespectful question.

How exactly is it a disrespectful question when Durant wanted to play with the potential risk to aggravating his injury?

Poor dude had a lot of pressure on him to play too, it's really a very unfortunate situation. I wouldn't blame him at all.

Like I said, it's Duran'ts decision whenever he plays or not. Nobody is forcing him to do anything.

He should've just refused to play a single minute for Warriors until he was fully healthy.

Even if it would damning his already crappy reputation in the NBA community.

Maybe crappy reputation in realgm community but not in nba community. He probably saw how overly cautious they are with klay and steph and assumed the same would be true for him. He didn't realize that they didn't care about his health since he's on his way out the door. Totally didn't buy Myers alligator tears.

Sent from my Pixel 2 XL using RealGM mobile app

[RalphWiggum]

This will haunt Golden State for a long time and rightfully so.

If he wouldn't have been out there for game 65 he shouldn't have been out there tonight.

I don't buy the medical guy's crocodile tears. If he knew KD was fit there's no reason for tears.

He was so upset because he knew he was pressured into playing a guy that he shouldn't have cleared plain and simple.

[Zvaart]

KD got pressured into playing by the "Frustrated Warriors". They owe him big time.

Statement made by a frustrated raps fan.

See? i can do this sheet too......

[MeloRoseNoah]

Depends. They told him that this couldn't happen. Kerry said that and Windhorst reported that as well. That the worst thing could happen was he could hurt his calf. The fact he played just a few minutes and tore his Achilles says that was not true.

Warriors have been telling people for days that if he does come back he can't get more injured. That going to put pressure on him to play.

Doris Burke reported the same. "No risk of injuring his Achilles"

Watch on YouTube

Makes you wonder indeed if the Warriors purposefully mislead KD feeling safe enough to play.

Not a good look for GSW.

ROFL That's some bs management propaganda right there. No physician in his or her right mind would say 0% risk of injury his Achilles.

[richboy]

No, this playoffs has validated everything I have believed since he joined:

1. Warriors are the Curry show, he is their best player

2. Warriors, without Durant, are an "every other year" type of champion

3. Warriors, with Durant, are an "every year" type of champion, so he does make them a lot better

4. His time in GS has basically been low hanging fruit. A 1st tier player who only needs to perform at the level of a 3rd tier player for his team to win it all.

This guy has a really complicated situation boiled down to simple points. I wish there was an "and 10"

The only thing I'd add is that KD has a lot more heart than people give him credit for. He apparently put his career on the line for us tonight. Maximum respect, whatever his choice is when the season ends.

I've said this for years. The Warriors without KD were a paper champion.

If you are saying this about the Warriors then you have *got* to agree about the Raptors if they win this year.
I don't do the asterisk stuff personally, but I'd be curious if you are actually consistent.

My problem with the no Durant Warriors is they don't really have a plan B. I called them paper champ because they are great in regular season and then the playoffs they struggle. All they do is pass pass pass until either Steph or Klay can get some room for a open shot. Against some of the elite teams they just aren't that good on offense without Durant in the playoffs. They really won because of there defense. It was tough to determine how good defensively they were because they kept playing teams without there point guard in the first title run. The 73 win year if OKC just had some shooting they should have won that series in 5. I wouldn't take away there title but people act like everybody should bow to the Warriors even before Durant. Durant went to the Warriors because he didn't see them as a rival. They won the title the year he was injured. Then he had OKC up 3-1 kicking out to Andre Roberson. He would never have joined Lebron. You watch those old press conferences during the OKC GS series you see he thought they were a flawed team. He joined them he kind of made them close to flawless.

Now would Toronto be a paper champion should they win. Toronto is a more complete team and they didn't face nearly as many injuries in the first 3 rounds. Going into the playoffs I felt GS was the best team in the league and Phili was the second. Toronto did get to play a injured and sick Embiid. I'm not sure I want to go as far as calling them a paper champion but I wouldn't call this a great champion. This would be more like the 2004 Detroit Pistons.

[garrick]

He can opt in and not become a FA so he is technically not losing any money from this, can he sue for potential lost earnings? Maybe so but since he's hella rich anyway it would be really stupid for him to sue.

[doozyj]

His agent is also supposed to be his voice of reason.

[levon]

[RalphWiggum]

I wonder how the union feels about this.

I guarantee you won't see anybody pushing things going forward.

They threw KD to the wolves.

No medical trainer gets that upset about a guy getting hurt unless he knew it was preventable and he had a part in it.

He bowed to the team's pressure and possibly/probably just severely damaged the last 5-6 years of one of the better players in league history.

Hope the win was worth it.

[Nutty Nats Fan]

I hate that I'm feeling for Durant

Don't hate the fact that you're a decent human being OP.

[lambchop]

Just kinda seals the Greek tragedy-esque arc of KD's career IMO

1. Drafted by Seattle, who were then promptly robbed of their team
2. Quickly ascended to make the Finals with an OKC squad who promptly pissed it away with an all time terrible trade
3. With further thanks to a combination of injuries and a horrific chokejob, never made it back to that stage again with OKC
4. Made a horrifically short-sighted decision to sign with a Warriors team for some cheap and easy championships, completely soiling his once sterling reputation overnight and becoming a punchline
5. Sacrificed his long-term health at the 11th hour during what was always likely to be his last run with the team, and effectively ended his prime overnight thanks to horrific medical mismanagement

He's an all time great for sure but I look at his entire career and just feel such a strong sense of sadness about it all...

This. Somehow it feels like he wasted his prime, despite enviable levels of success.

[Drygon]

I think Durant joining the Warrior's 73 win team after blowing a 3-1 lead to them is the biggest bitch move in sports history

Most players would've done the same if they were in Durant's situation.

It's in everyone's best interest to put themselves in best position. Joining Warriors was a no-brainer decision.

Warriors' lost 40% of their starting line-up and lost several of their valuable role players from that 73-9 roster spot.

Also, they lost NBA Finals 2016 despite a 3-1 lead against Cavs. Just like Michael Jordan said, "73-9 don't mean anything".

KD-less Warriors' only Championship was against a Cavs team without Kyie/Love and they're still pushed to Game 6.

Since Durant joined, he won back-to-back Finals MVP & 2 Championships as the best player for Warriors.

[sacking123]

I disagree with everything in your post.

I don't think the media and fans had any power in his decision to play, and if they did I don't think the narrative was against KD.

I also spoke to a physio this afternoon and showed her the video of his Achilles going - I mentioned that he is a free agent and eligible for a 5-year contract, her words were "Nobody will sign him to a long term contract with that injury". She said that in a straight line he will be ok, but he will never regain the ability to jump and land, the explosiveness will never come back. I think teams will offer him a max, but after that discusssion, I don't think that they should.

I didn't say the media and fans had any power in his decision to play. What I did say was they were basically calling him a liar and creating a false narrative of both KD and the Warriors (not that they handled it the best by the way).
The narrative pre game 5 certainly wasn't positive regarding KD, at all, so I don't know where you get it wasn't against him.
In some ways part of that was on the Warriors themselves for not giving out more information and being transparent, which lends itself to people making up absurd things, but there is no doubt the narrative prior to the hours before game 5 was anti KD.

So you say "this injury this really calls into question the media and fans.
KD was basically called a liar that the injury wasn't bad enough to sit out. If he had of sat out the series the entire basketball world would have come down on him even harder than they have before, which is saying something and I believe this is what these people wanted."

Then you say "I didn't say the media and fans had any power in his decision to play."

Which is it?

They didn't have any power in his decision to play. When did I say the media and fans had any power in his or any players' decision to play?
What has that got to do with anything that I said in my post?
I said it calls into question the media and fans for basically calling him a liar that the injury wasn't bad enough to sit out.
How is calling out the media and fans for making up complete lies about this entire situation equal to me saying they had the power of KD playing or not.
Seriously, how hard is that to understand?

[richboy]

Depends. They told him that this couldn't happen. Kerry said that and Windhorst reported that as well. That the worst thing could happen was he could hurt his calf. The fact he played just a few minutes and tore his Achilles says that was not true.

Warriors have been telling people for days that if he does come back he can't get more injured. That going to put pressure on him to play.

Doris Burke reported the same. "No risk of injuring his Achilles"

Watch on YouTube

Makes you wonder indeed if the Warriors purposefully mislead KD feeling safe enough to play.

Not a good look for GSW.

ROFL That's some bs management propaganda right there. No physician in his or her right mind would say 0% risk of injury his Achilles.

Lots of physicians think they are God. They will say all kind of stuff. I have seen this first hand.

[Ferulci]

It is fair to say that it is by far the dumbest post I have ever saw on RealGM.
Congratulation Sir, you are an idiot.

Watch on YouTube