Kevin Durant didn't just leave Team USA because of exhaustion. (USATSI)
Oklahoma City Thunder forward Kevin Durant withdrew from USA Basketball this past summer shortly after Indiana Pacers forward Paul George suffered a gruesome leg injury. There was speculation at the time that George's injury had influenced the MVP, but Durant only cited mental and physical exhaustion as his reasons for leaving before Team USA went to the FIBA World Cup. In his upcoming HBO reality special, though, we will see that George did indeed have an impact. From the Washington Post's Michael Lee:
While heading to a gym in Oklahoma City to host his annual basketball camp, Kevin Durant sent a text message to Team USA Coach Mike Krzyzewski to let him know that he needed to talk about something important. Durant had made up his mind that he was drained and could no longer dedicate his summer to training and playing for USA Basketball.
[…] A few days before he reached out to Krzyzewski, Durant watched Indiana Pacers forward Paul George break his right leg in a horrific collision with a basket stanchion during a Team USA basketball scrimmage in Las Vegas that convinced the reigning NBA MVP to withdraw from the FIBA World Cup.
“It took everything out of me seeing that,” Durant later told friend Randy Williams and a Nike executive at his camp of George. “Everything I had to play for Team USA, that injury stripped it away from me.”
…
“It felt awkward,” Durant said of the scrimmage that possibly ended George's season. “Once we were playing, it just didn't feel right for some reason.”
After Durant is shown reacting on court to what he called a “freak accident,” the scene shifts to conversation with Durant in which he says, “When you see something like that, so gruesome, in front of you, of course you're going to think, ‘This could happen to me.' ”
Durant was noticeably unsettled as he stood on a wall and spoke to Krzyzewski. He later explained, “I feel like I'm letting somebody down and I hate that feeling.”
There might be some backlash here. In fact, there already has been (NSFW language). Honestly, though, would anyone have blamed Durant if he had been upfront about this from the start? It's only human to be spooked by seeing someone get seriously hurt like that. I never want to see George's injury again, and can't imagine what it must have been like to have been on the court.
Of course, Durant was right to call it a "freak accident" -- it could have happened anywhere. And the Thunder superstar wound up breaking his foot before the start of the season, anyway. Sometimes it doesn't matter what precautions you take.
I'm not going to rip Durant for the way he handled this, but I will say he could have just been transparent from the beginning. If the rest of the documentary has him being truly himself, then it'll be worth the watch. (It airs Tuesday at 10 p.m. ET.)
Even more interesting than all of that: per the Washington Post, Durant is shown watching the NBA Finals and yelling, "LeBron is gone if they lose this series, dog," at his television. Durant sees the future!
Basketball Hot News
League fines Tony Allen $15,000 for slapping cameraman
Tony Allen is a veteran, he had to know a fine was coming as soon as he did this.
The league cannot have its players randomly hitting cameramen on the sidelines. Doesn’t matter if nobody was hurt, or that Allen apologized, or that the cameraman in question, Bo Bradley, says he was fine and it’s no big deal. It sets a bad precedent. The league announced it had fined Allen on Monday.
Memphis Grizzlies guard Tony Allen has been fined $15,000 for intentionally striking a camera on the baseline during the Grizzlies’ 93-81 victory over the New Orleans Pelicans on Monday, Nov. 3, at FedEx Forum, it was announced today by Rod Thorn, President, Basketball Operations.
At the time Allen was clearly frustrated with a call after he had rotated over to help on Omer Asik. Allen walked over to the baseline, then slapped Bradley’s camera.
The league just couldn’t let that go unpunished.
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