Bob Myers gives a very emotional press conference on Durant, stating, “It’s an Achilles injury,” and defending the entire Warriors training staff pic.twitter.com/AxqClI89e1
— Jake Hutchinson (@hutchdiesel) June 11, 2019
Kevin Durant gave it a go. He returned from a right calf injury after 32 days on the shelf for a must win Game 5 of the NBA Finals. Durant was fantastic, scoring 11 points in 12 minutes. Then he went down again in the second quarter, and this time it appears to be much worse.
General Manager Bob Myers had the thankless task of making the announcement after the Warriors’ incredible 106-105 win Monday night. He could not hide his emotions, crying throughout the announcement, clearly feeling some level of guilt for a situation that went from bad to catastrophic.
“Kevin had a…it’s an Achilles injury,” a tearful Myers began. “I don’t know the extent of it. He’ll have an MRI tomorrow. Prior to coming back he went through four weeks with our medical team. It was thorough and it was experts and it was MRIs and it was doctors, and we felt good about the process. He was cleared to play tonight, that was a collaborative decision. I don’t believe there’s anybody to blame, but I understand this world, and if you have to, you can blame me. I run our basketball operations department.”
Myers then addressed those who questioned why Durant hadn’t been playing.
“And to tell you something about Kevin Durant, Kevin Durant loves to play basketball, and the people that questioned whether he wanted to get back to this team were wrong.
“And I’m not here to — he’s one of the most misunderstood people. He’s a good teammate, he’s a good person, it’s not fair. I’m lucky to know him. I don’t know — 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.”
Lastly, Myers was asked to clarify how this injury is related to the calf strain the he sustained in Game 5 of the Western Conference semifinals.
“The initial injury was a calf injury. This is not a calf injury. I’m not a doctor, I don’t know how those are related or not, but it’s a different injury.”
A video that surfaced on Twitter of the incident seems to indicate a torn Achilles tendon.
You can definitely see something pop! @ProFootballDoc pic.twitter.com/nAPlPli74v
— ACL Recovery Club (@ACLrecoveryCLUB) June 11, 2019