UPDATED 4:30 p.m. ET: The Athetlic's Shams Charania reported that Durant "underwent surgery to repair a ruptured Achilles tendon." No timetable for Durant's return has been set.
After the surgery, Durant posted words of encouragement on Instagram from his hospital bed.
See the original story below.
While the entire basketball world is grieving Kevin Durant's injury, the incident undoubtedly hit hardest for his mother. On Wednesday, Wanda Durant described to Good Morning America the emotion she felt watching her son's tragic injury and why she thinks it happened.
"Yes, I've heard that," Durant responded when asked if she believes the Warriors rushed her son into competing after he sustained a lower-leg injury earlier in the playoffs. "It’s still out right now. We don’t know. He felt he was able to play. They said he could play, so we still have to analyze that and see if they made the right decision. That’s kind of up in the air right now."
She then went on to tell GMA's Robin Roberts that she believes the Warriors organization carries some weight for uts hand in clearing her son.
"What I will say is the doctors said that he was okay," Durant continued. "Kevin couldn’t have gone on his own and said 'I'm going to play' without the advisement of the doctors. So they said he was okay... they share responsibility for him playing."
On Wednesday, coach Steve Kerr explained who was involved in the decision to let Durant play. According to Kerr, Durant, his agent Rich Kleiman, the Warriors doctors, and a second opinion independent medical staff all had a hand in the decision. "Would we go back and do it over again?" Kerr said. "Damn right. Our feeling was the worst thing he could do was reinjure the calf. The Achilles came as a complete shock.”
Although Durant's mom doesn't place overt blame on the franchise, her sentiments echo the feeling of other league insiders. Former NBA player and current ESPN analyst, Jalen Rose, spoke directly to the Warriors' lapse in judgment.
"Everybody fake caring about KD's best interests when they don't. It's phony to me," Rose said in allusion to the Warriors' emotional response after KD's injury. Rose then dug deeper to highlight the negligence of Golden State's medical staff.
"I just said on Friday night on NBA Countdown that KD's work out did not go well for nobody involved," Rose said on First Take. "Then when KD go cleared to play people wanted to assassinate my character... You just said he can't take anybody off the dribble unnecessarily. That's his game! If he can't do that he shouldn't play."
