Kevin Durant suffered an Achilles injury during Game 5 of the NBA Finals between the Golden State Warriors and Toronto Raptors on Monday, June 10. The injury led to plenty of comments regarding the Warriors rushing Durant back to the court before he was 100 percent healthy.
Since the game, there have been other reports that Durant was in fact nowhere near ready to return to action.
There has also been an outpouring of messages of support for the Golden State star with players around the league and his own teammates sending him their best wishes. However, ESPN NBA analyst Jalen Rose isn’t having any of it.
On Tuesday morning, Rose used his time on air to call out the people who are “fake” concerned with Kevin Durant and his health.
“The reason why he shouldn’t have played—there’s multiple answers to this question. One, I blame the overall culture of sports,” Rose said during an appearance on First Take. “If the Golden State Warriors were up 3-1, he wouldn’t have returned. But since they were down 3-1, he was forced to return because of all the chatter we knew he would face.”
“There’s a group called State Property that I loved growing up. It there’s one of the things I think Omillio Sparks said… ‘People will bring flowers to your funeral, but don’t bring you soup when you’re sick.’ That’s what I’m seeing for KD right now. Everybody fake acting like they care about KD’s best interest when they don’t. It’s phony to me. I just said on Friday night on NBA Countdown that KD’s work out did not go well…We got our pound of flesh. As media, as fans, as people who watch this league faithfully. We wanted to see KD give himself to us.”
It’s hard not to agree with Rose’s comments.
Despite their win Monday night, Toronto continues to hold a 3-2 lead in the series. Game 6 will take place on Thursday, June 13 at 9:00 p.m. ET at Oracle Arena. If the Warriors are able to pull out another win, Toronto will host Golden State in Game 7 on Sunday, June 16. Let’s hope that fans on both sides can keep things classy the next time the two teams meet on the court.
