Kevin Durant has been a dominant force in the NBA for the past 16 seasons, but in 2019 when he suffered a torn Achilles during the NBA Finals, he thought it was all over.
Durant suffered the devastating injury in Game 5 of the 2019 NBA Finals against Toronto while playing for Golden State.
Although it happened almost five seasons ago, the emotions are still raw for Durant.
“That’s when I knew, I’m like, ‘Alright, I probably won’t go back to the Bay again,’ ” Durant said on Boardroom. “There’s 20,000 people in there and I heard a pop so I’m like, ‘Oh my gosh’ and my whole basketball career just flashed before my eyes, everything, everything I did, everything that I thought about, all my favorite moments, all my bad moments, it flashed.”
“And that’s why if you watch, I’m just sitting there gazing into the crowd before somebody came over to help me up. Because I’m just like, ‘This sh*t is over with.’ Like I truly don’t know what I’m about to be and that’s a nerve-racking feeling when you don’t know who you are.”
In that 2019 Finals series Game 5, Durant was returning from a strained calf he suffered during Game 5 of the Western Conference Semifinals against the Rockets. He missed nine games from the strain.
The Warriors needed a win against the Raptors, since they were down 2-0 in the series and KD had notched up 11 points in the first half.
Just two minutes into the second quarter, KD got hurt on a dribble on the right wing as he was trying to drive past Raptors center Serge Ibaka.
Unfortunately, the injury was how Durant ended his third and final season with the Warriors, before he signed with the Nets as a free agent.
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