Before the player movement portion of the NBA offseason officially got underway, word broke that Kevin Durant would leave the Golden State Warriors and join the Brooklyn Nets. It was perhaps the biggest move in free agency since Durant left Oklahoma City to join the Dubs, and while it was speculated for months that he would seek greener pastures, the fact that the move occurred after he ruptured his Achilles in the NBA Finals made it all the more interesting.
There was some speculation as to whether the circumstances surrounding his Achilles injury was the straw that broke the camel’s back. Durant hurt his calf in the Western Conference Semifinals against the Houston Rockets, missed the end of that series, sat out for all of the Western Conference Finals against the Portland Trail Blazers, and missed the first four games of the NBA Finals before taking the floor in Game 5 in Toronto. The first quarter went off without a hitch, then in the second, he suffered the injury.
Durant hasn’t spoken about the circumstances surrounded his getting hurt, which included a whole lot of outside blame being placed on the Warriors for allegedly rushing him back. He did, however, break his silence on Wednesday in a piece by Chris Haynes of Yahoo Sports, making it clear that he harbors zero ill will towards how Golden State handled things.
Via Yahoo Sports:
So we got straight to it. Did the Warriors mishandle the injury?
Durant slowly straightened up with a perplexed expression on his face.
“Hell, no. How can you blame [the Warriors]? Hell, no,” Durant told Yahoo Sports. “I heard the Warriors pressured me into getting back. Nobody never said a word to me during rehab as I was coming back. It was only me and [director of sports medicine and performance] Rick [Celebrini] working out every day. Right when the series started, I targeted Game 5. Hell, nah. It just happened. It’s basketball. S— happens. Nobody was responsible for it. It was just the game. We just need to move on from that s— because I’m going to be back playing.”
That’s about as cut and dry of an answer to the question as you’ll find. Steve Kerr did say after Durant went down that this was, more or less, a freak incident that occurred separately from the calf injury he suffered, and while Durant didn’t go quite that far, it does seem like he doesn’t harbor any ill will towards the Dubs for how things played out on that fateful night up north.
