Kevin Durant confirmed what we all knew would be the case after everyone witnessed his calf explode the other night in Game 5, he ruptured his Achilles and will be out for the remainder of the NBA Finals.
Looking at this from two different standpoints playing Durant in Game 5 despite him not being 100 percent coming back from a calf strain was pretty much a no-brainer. Down 3-1 already in the series, if KD doesn’t play in Game 5, at all then the Toronto Raptors are your new NBA Champions. So essentially Durant was the sacrificial lamb for Golden State in order to extend their lives to Game 6.
If you’re Kevin Durant this is essentially a no-win situation for you.
You either sit out and hear the media and fans refer to you as ‘soft’ as your team gets bounced in five games by the Raptors. Or you suit up, give what you can and as we’ve already seen suffer an injury that will potentially keep you out all of next season and perhaps have a major impact on your free agent prospectus this upcoming offseason.
Obviously this is all hindsight but you can see the viewpoint of the situation from all ends. If I’m KD though I tell Golden State and the media for that matter to fuck off and set my sights for the offseason.