Would you have played?

[Michael Jordan]

If I felt I could play, I probably would have - hard to see your team go down without you.

If I was KD's manager though I definitely wouldn't have allowed him to play. Your clients team is down 3-1 and he's approaching the most important summer of his career.

[sikma42]

I've played through an MCL strain and tons of other injuries. Rarely ever missed time through hs and college bball. But I would have sat in KDs position. I also would have encouraged him to sit as a teammate. If it was any injury besides an Achielles then I'd say go for it, but that one is too serious and takes away too much.

Would also be different if he had never been there or it was towards the twilight of his career. There was no reason to play that day. Seems like it had a lot to do with his impending free agency, because if he was coming back they dont let him play.

Sent from my SM-N960U using RealGM mobile app

[ropjhk]

I know if I was the head trainer I would have pushed to have KD go through some more practices before letting him see the court in a real game. If I were KD, I wouldn't have played. My personality is the type that tries to remove emotions away from my decision making and the risk vs. reward tradeoff was not good. But if I was KD, I might not even be in the NBA. It takes a certain mindset to become an NBA superstar and that mindset has more of a basis in emotion and irrational confidence in oneself.

[Galloisdaman]

1. I would have played.

2. I think if KD injured it that night it likely would have already needed surgery whether he played or not.

[Galloisdaman]

I know if I was the head trainer I would have pushed to have KD go through some more practices before letting him see the court in a real game. If I were KD, I wouldn't have played. My personality is the type that tries to remove emotions away from my decision making and the risk vs. reward tradeoff was not good. But if I was KD, I might not even be in the NBA. It takes a certain mindset to become an NBA superstar and that mindset has more of a basis in emotion and irrational confidence in oneself.

If KD does not play its likely there are no more practices this season.

[RIP Kobe]

i have played through many injuries, ACL, ankle, broken wrists etc.

i had surgery to repair my ACL in 2013 and played before the surgery (had to wait for surgery)

that being said...

an achilles tear is something that scares me the most. i've had mild pain in my achilles and i refuse to play, it scares me that much.

[Lakers LeBron]

Hell no. In high school I played soccer and my teammates would get upset with me because I would sit out games if anything hurt or felt even a little wrong. Meanwhile they'd all play through injuries of varying degrees severity. Now I'm 30 and I don't even know what knee pain feels like because I've never felt it. So yeah if I were in KD's position I would have sat out

[Forbes]

Yes absolutely I would have played for my 3rd ring. No question.

Right now it’s just hard to know the truth.

[zhenyasj]

No, absolutely not. At the end of the day this is a business. The Warriors organization see him as an asset piece and will do anything for them to win. The fact that they pressured him, rushed him back, and removed the minutes restrictions for him shows that they don't care about him as a person, only as an asset. So why should KD do any different?

He has to do what's necessary to protect his asset value. The problem was that he took this personally and emotionally and so are many of you guys here. If he had taken it logically from a business POV, he would have done what Kawhi did and protected his stock value especially coming to the end of his contract.

How did his value take a hit? He will still get a max offer from multiple teams. He will never get another chance at a 3-peat though, and winning is why most players play the game. And stop with the pressure BS.

[13th Man]

No, absolutely not. At the end of the day this is a business. The Warriors organization see him as an asset piece and will do anything for them to win. The fact that they pressured him, rushed him back, and removed the minutes restrictions for him shows that they don't care about him as a person, only as an asset. So why should KD do any different?

He has to do what's necessary to protect his asset value. The problem was that he took this personally and emotionally and so are many of you guys here. If he had taken it logically from a business POV, he would have done what Kawhi did and protected his stock value especially coming to the end of his contract.

How did his value take a hit? He will still get a max offer from multiple teams. He will never get another chance at a 3-peat though, and winning is why most players play the game. And stop with the pressure BS.

We would hope that he would get a long-term max contract from other teams, however how many good teams would be willing to max him out, potentialy have him sit out all of next year while taking up valuable cap space and costing them 40M or whatever the max is? Not to mention that he likely will not come back the same player.

This is why playing was such a huge risk not worth taking imo.

[Drygon]

I'm genuinely shocked on how many people would actually make the same decision as Durant.

He was headed into free agency as possibly NBA's best player itw (alongside with Kawhi).

Several teams (inclusive Warriors) were about to offer him a multi-year contract with over $100m.

There's absolutely no reason for risking the long-term health to play in a final where Warriors were down from 1-3.

Had Warriors lost, it would've solidify the narrative on how Durant carried them to 2 straight Championships.

[zhenyasj]

No, absolutely not. At the end of the day this is a business. The Warriors organization see him as an asset piece and will do anything for them to win. The fact that they pressured him, rushed him back, and removed the minutes restrictions for him shows that they don't care about him as a person, only as an asset. So why should KD do any different?

He has to do what's necessary to protect his asset value. The problem was that he took this personally and emotionally and so are many of you guys here. If he had taken it logically from a business POV, he would have done what Kawhi did and protected his stock value especially coming to the end of his contract.

How did his value take a hit? He will still get a max offer from multiple teams. He will never get another chance at a 3-peat though, and winning is why most players play the game. And stop with the pressure BS.

We would hope that he would get a long-term max contract from other teams, however how many good teams would be willing to max him out, potentialy have him sit out all of next year while taking up valuable cap space and costing them 40M or whatever the max is? Not to mention that he likely will not come back the same player.

This is why playing was such a huge risk not worth taking imo.

There were only few of teams that could max him out, with the only relevant candidates being Warriors and Knicks. Nothing has changed.

[NBARocks]

No. My health is my livelihood, so if I lose that, what else do I do?

[karkinos]

prob would have
the way he looked in that first quarter...he was probably already thinking to himself, "why'd i sit out all those other games"

also realgm obviously are now pros at predicting achilles injuries and should be official medical consultants of the nba (lol)

[Tracymcgoaty]

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.

He looked a touch sluggish but he was playing great and was clearly a plus on the court.

I dont know about that dude..his shot was clearly not being affected at all..But his movement looked like a guy afraid of getting hurt out there. Might just be me but it didn't look good at all.

[13th Man]

How did his value take a hit? He will still get a max offer from multiple teams. He will never get another chance at a 3-peat though, and winning is why most players play the game. And stop with the pressure BS.

We would hope that he would get a long-term max contract from other teams, however how many good teams would be willing to max him out, potentialy have him sit out all of next year while taking up valuable cap space and costing them 40M or whatever the max is? Not to mention that he likely will not come back the same player.

This is why playing was such a huge risk not worth taking imo.

There were only few of teams that could max him out, with the only relevant candidates being Warriors and Knicks. Nothing has changed.

There were also rumors of him joining Kyrie in Brooklyn. That is now out the window.

You can't seriously say with a straight face that his injury has no impact on his free agency options.

[dhsilv2]

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.

He looked a touch sluggish but he was playing great and was clearly a plus on the court.

I dont know about that dude..his shot was clearly not being affected at all..But his movement looked like a guy afraid of getting hurt out there. Might just be me but it didn't look good at all.

You think he was a negative? Sure his defense was off and yeah his movement was off, but you're statement was he was hurting the team. There's no way he was. They were rolling and he looked solid enough.

[Tracymcgoaty]

He looked a touch sluggish but he was playing great and was clearly a plus on the court.

I dont know about that dude..his shot was clearly not being affected at all..But his movement looked like a guy afraid of getting hurt out there. Might just be me but it didn't look good at all.

You think he was a negative? Sure his defense was off and yeah his movement was off, but you're statement was he was hurting the team. There's no way he was. They were rolling and he looked solid enough.

Im saying he didn't look good out there. His shot was pure but everything else wasn't..he was walking around like he was on ice..It was way too early to tell how he would have ended the game..He got hot in the beginning basically hitting 3 catch and shoot 3s. But he looked like he couldn't create much on offense and on defense i'd figure they would target him everytime.

But to answer your question no he wasn't a negative..had he played longer i think he would have.

[CodeBreaker]

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

/thread

[dhsilv2]

I dont know about that dude..his shot was clearly not being affected at all..But his movement looked like a guy afraid of getting hurt out there. Might just be me but it didn't look good at all.

You think he was a negative? Sure his defense was off and yeah his movement was off, but you're statement was he was hurting the team. There's no way he was. They were rolling and he looked solid enough.

Im saying he didn't look good out there. His shot was pure but everything else wasn't..he was walking around like he was on ice..It was way too early to tell how he would have ended the game..He got hot in the beginning basically hitting 3 catch and shoot 3s. But he looked like he couldn't create much on offense and on defense i'd figure they would target him everytime.

But to answer your question no he wasn't a negative..had he played longer i think he would have.

The team needed another shooter so they could keep 2 on at all times. If he'd played 40 minutes sure maybe he'd have been one, but I doubt Kerr was going to do that. His defense was off but he wasn't bad and he added needed length which doesn't require mobility.