Golden State Warriors superstar Kevin Durant and Toronto Raptors star Kawhi Leonard are just two NBA players whose lives and careers have been irreparably altered — for better or worse — by advice from team doctors that didn’t quite pan out. Although the full fallout of Durant’s situation has yet to ripen, the franchises for which both athletes played did not emerge unscathed.
Here’s how Kawhi Leonard’s quadriceps injury during his time with the San Antonio Spurs impacted him, the Spurs and his current Raptors team:
Next: Kawhi Leonard’s quad
Kawhi Leonard’s quad
Kawhi Leonard played just nine games for the San Antonio Spurs during the 2017-18 NBA season. As his days of missed action turned into weeks and then months, the San Antonio franchise began to question whether he really was injured because Spurs team doctors had cleared him to play.
Leonard eventually sought consultation and treatment from doctors outside of the Spurs franchise and coach Gregg Popovich and teammate Tony Parker — stressed by the team’s struggles without Leonard — did not react kindly.
Parker seemed to belittle Leonard’s injury in an interview with the San Antonio Express-News‘ Tom Orsborn:
I’ve been through it. It was a rehab for me for eight months. Same kind of injury (as Kawhi), but mine was a hundred times worse. But the same kind of injury. You just stay positive.
I could have gone anywhere, but I trust my Spurs doctors. They have been with me my whole career. They know my body better than anybody … I feel like we have the best medical team in the world.
San Antonio’s impatience with his recovery — wanting Leonard on the court although he maintained that his quad was not right — planted a seed of distrust that Leonard could not overcome. After all, Leonard, like any NBA player who makes regular postseason appearances, sacrificed his body throughout his career, including on the way to the Spurs’ 2014 NBA championship. He also won the Finals MVP award that year.
Next — Kawhi Leonard’s quad (cont’d)
Kawhi Leonard’s quad (cont’d)
Dennis Robertson, Leonard’s uncle, spoke with Yahoo Sports about his nephew’s falling out with the Spurs:
I think it just became a lack of trust. They didn’t believe Kawhi couldn’t play and that caused a lack of trust in us and then us not believing in them. Any time a player says he’s not capable of playing, you should believe him. Why would Kawhi just stop playing all of a sudden? He’s a competitor.
Sometimes you get these team doctors telling you what you can and cannot do, and Kawhi was just in too much pain to get out there. This was a serious issue. They didn’t believe him, and after that, the relationship couldn’t recover and we decided we had to move on.
Leonard signed with the Raptors for the 2018-19 season and played 60 regular-season games. He now finds himself up 3-2 in the NBA Finals against the defending champion Golden State Warriors who are seeking a three-peat title. But this opportunity may not have happened for Leonard if he had rushed back onto the court before his body was ready, risking further injury. Toronto may not have signed him injured.
Here’s a look at the winners and losers in the Kawhi’s quad matter:
Next — Kawhi Leonard’s quad: The winners
Kawhi Leonard’s quad: The winners
The Raptors
Toronto finished the 2018-19 regular season with a 58-24 record, second in the NBA standings. They are one win away from bringing a championship to Toronto for the first time in the franchise’s history.
Kawhi Leonard
The former Finals MVP had the best regular season of his career, averaging 26.6 points, 7.3 rebounds, 3.3 assists and 1.8 steals per game a Raptors jersey. Playing 39 minutes in the postseason, Leonard is averaging 30.9 points, 9.2 rebounds, 4.0 assists and 1.4 steals and, if the Raptors win it all, would become the likely Finals MVP.
Next — Kawhi Leonard’s quad: The losers
Kawhi Leonard’s quad: The losers
San Antonio Spurs
The Spurs finished the 2018-19 season with a 48-34 record. The Spurs finished seventh in the Western Conference standings and were bounced from the playoffs in the first round, by the Denver Nuggets (4-3).
This week, 37-year-old Tony Parker — whose actions last season factored into Leonard’s decision to take his talents to Toronto — announced his retirement this week after after 18 years in the league.
Next — Kevin Durant’s calf
Kevin Durant’s calf
As covered thoroughly by Warriors Wire, Kevin Durant went down with a leg injury in Game 5 of the semifinals series against the Houston Rockets. He missed the Warriors-winning Game 6 and all of the Western Conference Finals against the Portland Trail Blazers, which the Golden State swept. When Durant did not make an appearance in the Finals against the Raptors, Warriors coach Steve Kerr stated that the injury turned out to be more serious than originally thought.
Durant was undergoing rehab, but not going through practices with the team. An all-crucial scrimmage last Thursday, June 6, would determine if the back-to-back Finals MVP could make an appearance in Game 5. reportedly did not go well, with sources close to the team stating Durant was not close to being ready to return.
Next — Kevin Durant’s calf (cont’d)
Kevin Durant’s calf (cont’d)
Although clearly not 100 percent, the All-Star forward was electric in his Game 5 return, recording 11 points, two defensive rebounds and one block in 12 minutes that sparked and eventual one-point Warriors win.
But his return and the win came at a steep price: Durant exiting the game early into the second quarter after stepping down hard on the hobbled, untested leg and immediately grabbing his Achilles when he slid to the ground.
The devastating turn of events had superstar guard Stephen Curry and general manager Bob Myers fighting back tears in their postgame press conferences, with Myers announcing that it was an Achilles injury for Durant.
Next — Kevin Durant’s calf (cont’d)
Kevin Durant’s calf (cont’d)
Instead of returning to the Bay Area with the rest of the team, Durant flew to New York for an MRI, with the team expected to report the results — an expected confirmation of an Achilles tear — on Tuesday night or Wednesday morning.
Instead, Durant reported the further news on his official diagnosis (Achilles rupture), and surprised everyone with a photo of himself in a hospital bed, post-surgery.
As sports injuries go, a torn Achilles has one of the lengthiest rehabs and can be one of the toughest to return from. The full ramifications of Durant’s injury — both to his playing ability and career and to the Golden State franchise — are not known yet.
But here are the winners and losers that already are emerging:
Next — Kevin Durant’s calf: The winners
Kevin Durant’s calf: The winners (and potential winners)
Kawhi Leonard and the Toronto Raptors
The Raptors saw their stranglehold on the series slip away in the 12 minutes Durant was on the court in Game 5. After he exited the game, the Warriors returned to struggle until Splash Brothers Curry and Klay Thompson willed themselves to incarnations of their 2015 selves.
But with a 3-2 series advantage heading into tonight’s Game 6 at Oracle Arena in Oakland, the Raptors have a chance to win a championship for the first time in Toronto franchise history.
The Warriors won Game 2 by five points and Game 5 by one point. The Raptors, meanwhile, dominated the Warriors throughout the series, winning Games 1, 3 and 4 by nine points, 14 points and 13 points, respectively. The Raptors have been the more solid, in-sync and consistent team this series, with role players like Pascal Siakam stepping up big.
Next — Kevin Durant’s calf: The winners (and potential winners)
Kevin Durant’s calf: The winners (and potential winners) (cont’d)
Stephen Curry
Curry was named MVP of the league in 2015 and 2016. Yet, despite winning three championships in four years and pushing for a third-straight title (and fourth overall), the Finals MVP has eluded him.
In 2015, a revelatory performance from Andre Iguodala put the trophy in the hands of the veteran forward. In 2016, the Cleveland Cavaliers won the championship and the Finals MVP award went to LeBron James.
Kevin Durant won Finals MVP in 2017 and 2018.
Although Klay Thompson also has stepped up big to try to make it a series with the Raptors, it is Curry who led the way with more dominance. If the Warriors can manage a three-peat championship, Curry could claim the Finals MVP award for the first time in his career.
Next — Kevin Durant’s calf — The losers (and potential losers)
Kevin Durant’s calf: The losers (and potential losers)
Kevin Durant
Durant is on the mend following surgery to repair a ruptured Achilles. He has a rehab and recovery process ahead that is expected to last a minimum of nine months, which means he most likely will miss the entirety of the 2019-20 season. In his Instagram announcement, he mentioned that he is “hurting deeply” because basketball is his “biggest love.” So, a year where basketball is replaced by grueling rehab but otherwise physical inactivity will present significant mental challenges for Durant.
Kevin Durant’s wallet
As with teammate DeMarcus Cousins, Durant’s Achilles tear happened in a season leading into free agency. Things didn’t work out for Cousins monetarily. Instead of the max deal he would have garnered had the injury not happened, he was offered a one-year contract with the defending champion Warriors.
Durant, meanwhile, is respected as one of the best basketball players to ever play the game, so some teams still have an interest in offering him a multi-year contract in free agency, in spite of the fact that he will miss significant time. But all of that is yet to be seen with no guarantee that his wallet will not take a hit.
Next — Kevin Durant’s calf: The losers (and potential losers) (cont’d)
Kevin Durant’s calf: The losers (and potential losers) (cont’d)
The Golden State Warriors
The Warriors got 12 minutes of Durant’s greatness but will be without him in a win-or-go-home Game 6. If the Warriors are able to win tonight — the last game they’ll ever play at Oakland’s Oracle Arena — they will get their chance at winning a third-straight championship.
But Game 7 would be in the same hostile Raptors territory where fans cheered when Durant went down with injury. That reason alone could inspire the Splash Brothers — as well as the more hotheaded Warriors like Draymond Green and DeMarcus Cousins — to hand that fan base a dose of revenge on their home court. Still, it would be a Game 7 on the road against a team with nothing to lose and everything to gain.
But, first, the Warriors have to win Game 6.
And this says nothing of what the Golden State roster will look like next season without Durant — whether the Warriors are without their Finals MVP because of the injury or because he chooses to sign with another team. The long-term ramifications promise to have a league-wide effect behind a ripple that has just started.
Next: Kevin Durant’s calf: The losers and potential losers (cont’d)
Kevin Durant’s calf: The losers (and potential losers) (cont’d)
NBA trainers and physicians
Although Warriors general manager Bob Myers offered to accept the blame for Durant’s return to the court resulting in injury, scrutiny over the Warriors’ medical staff has persisted. The Achilles tear has been characterized as a “new injury,” according to Myers, with attribution to that information pointing back to the team’s medical team.
Although the Achilles tear technically is new, it did not occur outside the context of Durant’s ongoing calf issue. The leg was not stable; the calf had not been thoroughly tested in conditions that would resemble win-or-go-home NBA Finals conditions.
Next — Kevin Durant’s calf: The losers (and potential losers) (cont’d)
Kevin Durant’s calf: The losers (and potential losers) (cont’d)
Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban tweeted about the need for greater research into tendons and ligaments in an effort to better protect players. While research and better care moving forward will be helpful, it will not help Durant, who was told by team doctors and outside consults that playing would not worsen the calf injury. But did these professionals also tell him he was at increased risk for a compensation injury?
To underscore the point: The Achilles injury may be new as the team purports, but it is not unrelated to Durant’s original calf injury. Additionally, the team reported that Kevon Looney, who missed Game 3 with fractured cartilage in his collarbone, was not at risk of worsening the injury if he played. He survived Game 4, with a focus on pain management.
In Game 5, Looney, too, saw an early exit because he re-injured the collar bone doctors advised was not at risk for further damage.
Next: Game information
2019 NBA Finals Game 6
When: Thursday, June 13, at 9:00 p.m. ET
Where: Oracle Arena in Oakland, CA
How to watch: ABC
