If the Golden State Warriors are looking for someone to absolve them and their medical staff of any liability for the injury Kevin Durant suffered in Game 5 of the NBA Finals, they are not going to get that from Durant’s mother.
Since Durant suffered what is believed to be a torn Achilles on Monday night, a lot of prominent people have blamed the Warriors for allowing him to play when there was an increased risk of hurting himself further. Durant’s mother, Wanda, had a chance to defend Golden State’s medical staff during an appearance on “Good Morning America” on Wednesday, but she stopped well short of doing that. You can hear her comments at around the 2:38 mark below:
FULL INTERVIEW: @mamadurant opens up about son @KDTrey5's dramatic injury during Game 5 of the #NBAFinals and his future in the NBA. pic.twitter.com/B1ZE5nDErl
— Good Morning America (@GMA) June 12, 2019
“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,” Wanda said. “That’s kind of up in the air right now.”
Wanda also noted that Kevin was told by doctors that it would be fine to play.
“What I will say is the doctors said that he was OK. Kevin couldn’t have gone on his own and (decided to play) without the advice of the doctors, so they said he was OK,” she added. “They share responsibility for him playing.”
It would have been easy to envision a situation where doctors advised Durant to sit out and he played anyway, but it does not sound like that was the case. The Warriors have also implied that Durant’s latest injury is different from the calf strain that held him out before, but it would be a stunning coincidence if the two were unrelated.
As we saw with the way she passionately defended her son on social media after his injury, Wanda Durant is very close with Kevin. Still, she is hardly the only one who seems to believe the Warriors were irresponsible in the way they handled the situation.
