Golden State Warriors star Kevin Durant underwent surgery for a ruptured Achilles on June 12, two days after he suffered the injury while playing in Game 5 of the NBA Finals.
Durant suffered a calf injury in the Western Conference Finals and had not played in the finals until Monday’s game.
Durant took to Instagram to give fans an update, writing: “I wanted to update you all: I did rupture my Achilles. Surgery was today and it was a success, EASY MONEY.”
He shared a picture of himself in a hospital bed, also writing: “My road back starts now! I got my family and my loved ones by my side and we truly appreciate all the messages and support people have sent our way.”
View this post on InstagramKD says he ruptured his achilles and underwent surgery today. ????❤️ #WinItForKD
“Like I said Monday, I’m hurting deeply, but I’m OK. Basketball is my biggest love and I wanted to be out there that night because that’s what I do. I wanted to help my teammates on our quest for the three-peat. It’s just the way things go in this game and I’m proud that I gave it all I physically could, and I’m proud my brothers got the W. It’s going to be a journey but I’m built for this. I’m a hooper. I know my brothers can get this Game 6, and I will be cheering with dub nation while they do it,” he added.
The 30-year-old, considered one of the best basketball players in the world, went down in the second quarter of the game. Sitting on the hardwood, he grasped his lower right leg and motioned to the sidelines that something was wrong. As a teammate and a team employee helped him to the locker room, he shouted an expletive.
Warriors coach Steve Kerr and other team officials have said there was no way to know Durant was at risk of such a severe injury.
“I don’t know what else to add to that other than had we known this was a possibility that this was even in the realm of possibility there’s no way we would have allowed Kevin to come back. It’s devastating,” Kerr told reporters on Tuesday.
“Now, would we go back and do it over again? Damn right,” he added. “But that’s easy to say after the results. When we gathered all the information, our feeling was the worst thing that could happen would be a re-injure of the calf. That was the advice and the information that we had. At that point, once Kevin was cleared to play, he was comfortable with that, we were comfortable with that. So the Achilles came as a complete shock.”
“When it happened, I just kind of sunk.” @mamadurant talks about the moment @KDTrey5 was injured on the court during game 5 of the #NBAFinals. pic.twitter.com/wcqNkvDQpQ
— Good Morning America (@GMA) June 12, 2019
Warriors president of basketball operations Bob Myers said after the game in a media appearance that the team had followed proper procedures.
“I don’t believe there’s anybody to blame, but I understand this world,” Myers said. “If you have to, you can blame me. I run our basketball operations department.”
Durant’s mother Wanda Durant said that it was painful to see her son injured.
“When it happened, I just kind of sunk,” she told “Good Morning America.”
“I was just glued on him, glued on his eyes to see how he was doing. It’s still kind of hurtful to see the anguish in his eyes. He looked as though he felt dejected at that time,” she added. “I talked with him about 5 to 10 minutes afterward. He just told me not to cry, cause I know he works so hard. He just told me he was going to be OK and don’t worry.”
