Kevin Durant on if the Warriors mishandled his calf injury: ‘Hell, no’

LOS ANGELES — Relaxing in a mansion at the highest peak of the Santa Monica Mountains in the elegant Beverly Crest area on a Tuesday afternoon, Kevin Durant is in the living room plopped on the sofa with his braced-up right leg elevated on top of the sectional.

He’s scrolling through his phone. His brother, Tony, and a few friends are over keeping him company. He has a few hours to kill before his physical therapist pays a visit.

An 80-inch television is mounted on the wall, but it’s off. Everyone is on their phones.

One of the newest members of the Brooklyn Nets, Durant hasn’t spoken publicly since his departure from the Golden State Warriors this summer. In fact, he hasn’t spoken since rupturing his right Achilles tendon in Game 5 of the NBA Finals against the Toronto Raptors.

The injury and its aftermath were heavily scrutinized and the Warriors were criticized for allowing the 10-time All-Star to return from a Grade 2 right calf strain he sustained in Golden State’s second-round series with the Houston Rockets.

“I know you didn’t come over here for nothing,” Durant says. “I’ll give you something.”

So we got straight to it. Did the Warriors mishandle the injury?

Durant slowly straightened up with a perplexed expression on his face.

“Hell, no. How can you blame [the Warriors]? Hell, no,” Durant told Yahoo Sports. “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--- happens. Nobody was responsible for it. It was just the game. We just need to move on from that s--- because I’m going to be back playing.”

View photos Kevin Durant heads to the locker room after rupturing his Achilles tendon in Game 5 of the NBA Finals. (Chris Young/The Canadian Press via AP) More

When he was escorted off the Scotiabank Arena almost two months ago, he was in a daze. Unable to process what had just occurred, all he knew was that he was being helped to the locker room. Initially, he was met with an awful gesture of cheers and applause from fans in attendance before Raptors players signaled the crowd to stop.

Durant doesn’t remember hearing the fans that night, but he has something for them to hear now.

“It will probably be the last time they will be in the Finals,” Durant told Yahoo Sports with a smirk.

Durant attempted to watch the remainder of Game 5 from his hotel room with his business partner, Rich Kleiman, and his Nike representative, Chuck Terrell, but dealing with a whirlwind of emotions, he turned the channel, only to switch it back a few minutes later to cheer on his teammates.

“Yeah, I still think about that night,” Durant told Yahoo Sports. “Every experience I’ve been through in the league is obviously always ingrained in my mind, but that one is definitely always going to be a huge part of my career because it’s the biggest stage and the type of injury I had. But now I look at it as me just going out there playing basketball, and I happened to get hurt. And now I’m just waiting to get back. I know it’s a huge deal to everybody else, but I just try to take it on the chin and keep it moving.”

It’s that mindset that pushed Durant to keep working to be ready for the NBA Finals.

“No matter what the series was, I was aiming for Game 5,” he said. “That’s why I played when it was 3-1. No matter what, I just wanted to play in the Finals. I just wanted to hoop, especially if I could be out there. I was feeling good leading up to it. I was working out every day. I was gradually getting back to myself doing the two-a-days. I was really locked in on my game and trying to get back. I really wanted to play in that series.”

The 2018-19 season was a tumultuous one for the Warriors. It was widely assumed Durant was leaving the Bay Area at the end of the year and that speculation escalated after the incident with Draymond Green mid-November.