© Bob Donnan | 2019 Feb 16
Kevin Durant is on the record as saying it wasn’t the Warriors’ fault that he tore his Achilles during Game 5 of the NBA Finals. New teammate Kyrie Irving isn’t buying it.
Without mentioning them by name, Irving heavily criticized the Warriors’ handling of Durant’s calf-turned-Achilles injury last season.
“I think you have to go inside the mind of a competitor,” Irving said. “And realize a lot of people have responsibilities for why that ended up happening how it happened on a national scale. We all know [Kevin] was not ready to play in that environment. We all know that. Whether people want to admit it or not. He was out 31 days and we put him on a national stage on The Finals to end up selling a product that came before the person, Kevin. And now, I’m here to protect that. I’m going to be the protector of that all throughout the year, and not allowing anyone to infiltrate that circle of, ‘Hey K, do you. Get right. We’ll be fine.’
“I’m very patient. I’m going to be over patient with Kevin because I don’t want anything like that to happen ever again, especially on that type of stage where it happened and then he’s having to answer questions about when he’s coming back or not. So I’m here to dispel it that you’ll never hear me say, ‘He’s coming back here or I think he’s coming.’ I want him to be 101 percent healthy.”
Conversely, here’s what Durant said about the incident in August:
“Hell, no. How can you blame [the Warriors]? Hell, no,” Durant told Haynes. “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–t happens. Nobody was responsible for it. It was just the game. We just need to move on from that s–t because I’m going to be back playing.”
