Briefing: June 11
Kevin Durant believed to have torn Achilles
Good Morning,
Well… this is sports.
Kevin Durant returned to the Warriors lineup last night, only to suffer a devastating injury after playing 12 of the game’s first 14 minutes.
"It's an Achilles injury," Warriors President Bob Myers said after the game, while holding back tears. "I don't know the extent of it. He'll have an MRI [today]. Prior to coming back he went through four weeks with a medical team, and it was thorough, and it was experts and multiple MRIs and multiple doctors, and we felt good about the process."
After the game, Durant said he was “hurting deep in his soul” but found temporary relief in the Warriors win:
MUST READ: An up-close look at the night that may have changed Kevin Durant’s career forever by Chris Haynes:
Some of Durant’s NBA peers who are interested in his next free-agent destination wondered if he’s happy in the Bay Area and plotted how to pitch their teams to the future Hall of Famer.
Durant, of course, learned of these inquiries.
“I can’t be recruited,” Durant told Yahoo Sports last week. “Write that.”
Even though he was cleared for Game 5, Durant was not anywhere close to 100 percent, sources said. The individual workout sessions and the light practice session on Sunday could not simulate the rigors of an ultra-competitive championship game.
And then two minutes into the second quarter, the worst transpired.
…
What say the Knicks: “in the immediate wake of Durant's injury on Tuesday morning, the Knicks were said to be looking at every possible option available to them,” per Ian Begley.
Meanwhile, Mitchell Robinson and Kevin Knox were in attendance for the crazy Game 5 in Toronto.
Anthony Davis Rumors
Before the Warriors and Raptors took the court on Monday, Anthony Davis rumors were rampant.
A framework for a trade: ESPN reports that David Griffin is “pursuing a combination of assets that include an All-Star player, a young player with All-Star potential and two first-round picks.”
Knicks would likely need to involve a third team to obtain the type of assets that the Pelicans are seeking, according to Marc Berman.
“[Griffin] has indicated that he prefers the acquisition of 2019 draft picks be completed days prior to the June 20 event in Brooklyn, league sources said. This gives the Pelicans a chance to meet and more closely examine draft candidates slotted in the vicinity of picks potentially traded to New Orleans.”
Later in the day, Shams Charania reported that Anthony Davis had narrowed his focus of desired long-term destinations from four teams to just the Knicks and Lakers.
Ian Begley confirmed the Knicks have talked to the Pelicans about a potential Anthony Davis trade.
Begley notes, “some people in the organization were uncomfortable with the idea of trading away significant assets for Davis, citing the way things played out for New York in the wake of the Carmelo Anthony trade.”
R.J. Barrett wants to be a Knick
Not to be lost in the shuffle of everything else, R.J. Barrett worked out with the Knicks yesterday.
"This is the place I want to be," Barrett said. "I hope they draft me."
"I love playing in the Garden. My dad used to tell me stories about playing here. So to see that crowd, it’s crazy."
Trying to process what just happened
by Jonathan Macri
As I finished off a podcast appearance and checked Twitter before I went to sleep at God knows what hour last night, I was unsurprised that my mentions were filled with questions related to KD and the Knicks.
I don't blame people looking at a horrible injury and making it about its effect on the team and not about the guy whose career as we know it might be over. It's instinct. As Mike Vorkunov and I were going back and forth about after the game, the storylines behind this sport have overtaken the sport itself, a fact never more apparent than last night when one of the greatest games we'll ever see will almost certainly be pushed aside in the conversation in favor of everything else.
For me, before I turned in last night, it felt too soon to even discuss any of it. It felt wrong because a man's career was at stake, and not just any man - someone who is (was?) about to take his rightful place atop the NBA throne as the Best Player Alive, at least for the next few years. He'd earned that expectation.
And then I awoke to two sobering realities: First, that our worst fears were realized, and the Warriors do indeed believe Kevin Durant tore his Achilles, and second, that the people who run the team that we root for don't have the luxury of a reflective grace period. The NBA draft is in nine days. Franchise-changing and league-altering decisions must be made before that time, and last night very much influenced, if not altered, what those decisions will wind up being.
This is the reality of the situation. In war, when someone goes down, the next man picks up their weapon and takes the unoccupied post. Of course, this isn't war...it's sports. But that doesn't change the fact that a battlefield mentality has always ruled over the courts and fields these professionals play on.
It's why Kevin Durant, as the whispers about the severity of his injury started to bubble to the surface, even suited up to play last night. He clearly wasn't ready, and yet he felt he had an obligation to give it a go. Whoever was involved in that decision in any capacity will have to live with it for the rest of their lives, as will the entire Warriors' organization.
(Please, though...let's get another few pieces out about how Golden State's culture has repeatedly steadied the ship in times of crisis. Give me a break. Organizations are run by humans acting in their own self interest. The culture is good until those decisions stop working out, and vice versa.)
Now, we still need to learn the MRI results, but with it entirely possible that Durant will not play basketball again until 2020, the powers that be are left to recalibrate. And my, how quickly things can change.
Two years ago, it was unfathomable that Kevin Durant would ever consider playing for the Knicks. Two weeks ago, it was unfathomable that the Warriors would ever lose a seven-game series. Two days ago, it was unfathomable that Golden State could come back and make this a series. And two hours before tipoff, it was was unfathomable that the Knicks would second guess making KD their primary offseason target.
And yet here we are. Literally everything is up in the air. Forget more questions than answers; there are more questions than parameters for those questions, because every facet of the summer ahead is the setting in its own, never-ending choose your own adventure book.
Going after Kevin Durant and going after him hard was the one certainty above all else, and now that is not so. Change directions towards Kawhi Island, perhaps? What if promises have already been made, and there existed a tacit understanding (the one we all secretly fantasized about having happened in some backroom meeting) that no matter what, KD would be a Knick next season?
In what I'd guess would be the most likely scenario, what if KD picks up his team option and rides out next year on the bench in a fancy new arena? What then? Wait him out? Or alter course?
By the way, wouldn't it be something if the Raptors won two or five days from now and the summer of seismic change ended with the only star free agent changing teams being the dude who told a Boston crowd during training camp that he'd be back if they'd have him?
I specify "free agent" because Durant's injury directly alters the Knicks pursuit of another generational star who will be wearing a different uniform next season, Anthony Davis. I've thought for a while now that the Knicks would only make an all-in push for AD if they felt they needed him to secure Durant's services.
That calculation now changes in ways we don't yet know, but before you say "good, let him go to LA," remember: you need two teams to cause a bidding war. With yesterday's news that Davis has narrowed his list to the Lakers and Knicks, does New Orleans push to keep New York involved in the sweepstakes, whether they really want to be or not? Or does a new team emerge to try and steal AD on the relative cheap (emphasis on relative)?
Add it to the list of things we'll now wonder about, at the top of which, at least for me, will be this: does it enter into the minds of the Knicks' brass to try and find the silver lining on what happened last night, and use this injury as - I don't want to say excuse, but, well...an excuse - to go all in on youth and avoid some of the tougher decisions that were sure to lie ahead in the weeks to follow?
They won't have to ever say the words "when KD went down, it changed everything for us" because everyone will already know. Pivoting to a continued rebuilt (the Hawks route, as it were) becomes far more palatable now, and the Knicks front office, ever cognizant of the narratives surrounding the team, would have a far easier sell on their hands than they would have 24 hours ago. Yes, try to get a meeting with Kawhi, do your due diligence on Davis, kick some other tires, but ultimately, that option looms large.
Or...
Or you make an investment in a guy who likely won't play another basketball game until he is 32 years old. Whether or not they should still go this route is the question that will dominate the conversation for the next three weeks, and I have a funny feeling the sides will be evenly split. There may not be a right answer.
(FWIW, it's the route I would go, but we have more time to talk about that in the coming days)
What I'm quite certain of is that New York should make its decision soon. Like I said at the top, they do not have the luxury of a grace period. If they are still all in on Durant, get word to him that this is the case, and seal a deal that, until yesterday, you likely had major doubts about whether you could. My guess - my hope - is that Scott, Steve & Co. we up late last night having these very conversations. They have no choice but to do so.
Tragedy strikes, but the world moves on.
The cruelty of sports has never been clearer.
20 years ago today: Knicks reach the NBA Finals as an 8 seed
June 11, 1999: Knicks become first eight seed in NBA history to reach the NBA Finals, as they defeat the Indiana Pacers 90-82 in Game 6 of the Eastern Conference Finals at MSG. Knicks overcome the loss of Larry Johnson to a first-half knee injury, behind 32 points from Allan Houston and 20 points from Latrell Sprewell. [Vivek Dadhania with more]
Thanks for reading, talk to you tomorrow!