For a brief moment, superstar Kevin Durant thought his Hall of Fame NBA career had come to an end.
In the second quarter of Game 5 of the 2019 NBA finals between the Golden State Warriors and Toronto Raptors, Durant suffered an Achilles tear. He opened up about that injury in a recent interview with business partner Rich Kleiman.
"It's 20,000 people in there and I heard a pop,” Durant said. “So I'm like, 'Oh my gosh,' and my whole basketball career 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 s--- is over with.'"
The Warriors went on to lose the series in six games. Durant signed with Brooklyn Nets a few weeks later and missed the entire 2019-20 campaign while recovering.
He debuted for the Nets the following season, and ever since he returned to the floor Dec. 22, 2020—561 days after suffering the Achilles tear—Durant has been named to all four All-Star Games in that span.
It turns out his career was far from being over.
Now, Durant will try to return to the NBA Finals for the first time since that painful day in 2019. Durant and the Suns entered the All-Star break with a 33–22 record, good for fifth in the Western Conference.
