Steve Nash says the heroes were ‘heartbroken’ after Kevin Durant’s Achilles injury, Don’t blame them

On the eve of the start of the 2020-21 NBA season, Steve Nash says no one should blame the Warriors for Kevin Durant ‘s Achilles injury.

“They were heartbroken,” said Nash ahead of the Nets’ opening against Golden State on Tuesday in which Durant will face the previous team. “They have amazing medical staff and they have a number of injuries that have been very unfortunate so people might look to point fingers but you can’t control everything there. the professional sport. ”

After Durant went down with the Achilles injury during Game 5 of the 2019 NBA Finals in Toronto, the Warriors ’medical staff took a lot of heat.

Durant had been dealing with a tight right calf muscle during the Western Conference finals against the Portland Trail Blazers and was returning against the Raptors.

After his downfall, many spectators said he should never be on the court, and that he should have waited until next season, which ended up sitting a- out after signing a four-year, $ 164-million deal with the Nets into 2019.

Warriors President Bob Myers offered to take the blame.

“I don’t believe anyone is to blame, but I understand in this world and if you have to, you can blame me,” Myers said. “I run our basketball activity division. And to tell you something about Kevin Durant, Kevin Durant loves to play basketball, and the people who questioned whether he wanted to get back into this team were wrong. ”

Myers said: “The first injury was a calf injury. This is not a calf injury. I’m not a doctor, I don’t know how these are related or not, but it’s a different injury. ”

Nash, a former Warriors adviser, confirmed that position Monday.

“It was a terrible situation where they are at the end of the road, they are in the NBA finals, Kevin is recovering from a calf, tearing his Achilles by accident,” he said. “I think people accepted that it was the calf that brought him to the Achilles, and maybe in the end he only did it with three medical ideas, maybe 100 years or more of medical experience, that is not the history of that injury. It’s not calf tears that turn into Achilles ’trouble. And so it just looks like that from the outside. There is a lot of bad luck.

“They were heartbroken because they really put family and people ahead of basketball in that group so Kevin wanted to play, they wanted to compete, they wanted to support him in doing so but they also know that there is danger and were heartbroken when that danger came to life. ”

With Durant ready to play his first regular-season game after two strong showing games, Nash has said the Nets star is at 90-99 percent of full capacity.

“I’m definitely getting more comfortable every day with design,” Durant said. “I’m always comfortable with basketball in my hands but physically not being able to run up and down the court is going to make me feel more than two or three games like that. me in midseason form physically. It’s about retraining my body and mind to play the game with referees, playing the game running plays, because in the summer when we were playing pickup, I’m not running plays, I come down shooting three wild ones. , I come down just trying to test myself and now you have to be a little more strategic in this game.

“So I look forward to using my mind and body when I go out there. ”

The Nets are tied for their third-favorite NBA title win after the Lakers and Bucks. Despite rumors that rumors that James Harden’s trade could “destroy the chemistry of their locker room”, the Nets have two superstars, a deep and strong support team and they appear and as if they could be a threat. to the Lakers, Bucks and other contenders.

“We’re all excited,” said Nash. “This is what we love, competing, so now that it counts and it really does, it’s always like the first day of school, its everyone is excited, we are ready to go.

“Of course there is a little more interest because this is the first thing. It’s Kevin and Ky[rie Irving’s] first together in Nets costume, a terrifying roster making his first appearance together, and then playing the Warriors, sort of a descendant of this last decade.

“So it’s an exciting opening night, an exciting first time in many ways. I’m excited to see the work we’ve submitted and how it translates early in this campaign and we’ll get out of there … I’m excited to see how our team will be dealing with the attention. ”