Exactly a week ago, Golden State forward Kevin Durant injured right Achilles during Game 5 of the NBA Finals.
Durant had surgery on Wednesday to treat a ruptured right Achilles tendon.
“My road back starts now,” Durant posted on Instagram following his surgery.
“I got my family and my loved ones by my side and we truly appreciate all the messages and support people have sent our way,” Durant wrote on Instagram about the injury he suffered against Toronto in Game 5 of the NBA Finals on Monday. “I’m hurting deeply, but I’m OK. Basketball is my biggest love and I wanted to be out there that night because that’s what I do. I wanted to help my teammates on our quest for the three peat.”
Durant played in 12 of the first 14 minutes of action last Monday after returning from a 32-day layoff after suffering a mild calf sprain.
He returned for Game 5 to help his team.
Million Dollar Question: Should he have?
“I can’t tell another man what to do,” Dwight Howard told AM New York’s Derrell Johnson while on the red carpet of the Shaft movie premiere last week.
“As a player you never want to play hurt. When you get out there and play and lose, everyone’s going to say: ‘Well, you didn’t look hurt to me,’ or whatever it may be. So you have to do what’s going to be best for you in that situation and understand that your body is what you use to make money and while you’re playing you have to make sure you take care of it.”
“He’s one of the most misunderstood people,” Warriors general manager Bob Myers said last week.
“He’s a good teammate, he’s a good person, it’s not fair. I’m lucky to know him. I don’t have all the information on what really the extent of what it all means until we get a MRI, but the people that worked with him and cleared him are good people, they’re good people.”
Durant is a couple of weeks away from free agency and is also facing a long rehabilitation process.
What’s next?
“We work so hard to get to this point and the game gets taken away from you, especially with leg injuries and things like that, you’re not really able to run or do anything on the floor,” said the Toronto Raptors’ Kawhi Leonard.
“So you really just have to change your mindset on things and try to attack each day of getting better and just know that you’re going to play again one day.
Leonard missed all but nine games of last season due to a quadriceps injury.
“You want to come back as the player that you were,” said Leonard.
“Make sure you come back when you feel healthy and you feel good enough that you feel confident enough in yourself to go back out there on the floor. Know that that day will come. And just like I said, attack each day.”
Id like to think that kd has formed a bond with his warriors teammates. Despite all the warriors haters/critics its proven that with the money onthe line they were unable to match up with the raptors without him. For the 11 minutes he played you could see doubt on torontos faces as he effortlessly rained 3 points one easily over all time great defender kawahi. If kd hadnt won in oakland yes, i could see him leaving,but he DID win to the tune of back to back titles and finals mvps sooooo his LEGACY is in the bay.