Houston Rockets forward Kevin Durant is considered one of the greatest NBA players of all time and recently admitted that he was not aware his calf strain during the 2019 NBA Finals could lead to him tearing his Achilles, which is exactly what happened in Game 5.
“If I knew that information I would’ve made a different decision. If they told me, ‘Ah, you can tear your Achilles, I probably wouldn’t have went out there.”
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The 2019 NBA Finals turned out to be the end of Durant’s run with the Golden State Warriors that produced back-to-back championships and three consecutive Finals appearances. Durant had suffered a calf strain earlier during the 2019 postseason run, which caused him to miss the entire Western Conference Finals, in which Golden State swept the Portland Trail Blazers. He’d also missed the first four games of the NBA Finals and made his return in Game 5.
Durant was done after Game 5, and the Warriors would fall to the Toronto Raptors in five games, failing in their attempt at a three-peat. In Durant’s interview on teammate Fred VanVleet’s podcast, “Unguarded,” Durant said he never really thought the Achilles injury was a possibility. He mentioned the late Kobe Bryant’s Achilles tear, which happened in 2013.
At the time, there weren’t as many high-profile players such as Durant or Bryant suffering Achilles injuries in the same way we’ve seen in recent years. Tyrese Haliburton, Damian Lillard, and Jayson Tatum all ruptured their Achilles tendons last season. Former Warriors sharpshooter Klay Thompson suffered his Achilles tear after Durant in late 2020 while recovering from an ACL tear.
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While it could’ve been a sign of the time, it is strange that Durant wasn’t given a heads-up that his calf strain could lead to further injury, especially when a torn Achilles is part of that possibility.
