Programming note: Watch the NBA Finals pregame edition of Warriors Outsiders on Thursday at 4 p.m., streaming live on the MyTeams app.
The worst-case scenario appears to have come to fruition for Kevin Durant on Monday night in Toronto.
Although nothing is official yet, all reports indicate that the reigning two-time NBA Finals MVP sustained a torn right Achilles early in the second quarter in Game 5 of the NBA Finals.
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KD strained his right calf on May 8 and was playing in a game for the first time in nearly five weeks.
He started, played 9 minutes and 43 seconds in the first quarter and then was on the floor at the beginning of the second quarter.
And at the 9:51 mark ...
... pop.
After Golden State's improbable 106-105 win over the Raptors, NBC Sports NBA Insider Tom Haberstroh spoke with a couple medical experts about the way the Warriors deployed KD:
“Just seems unacceptable,” said one longtime director of performance. “Doesn’t make any sense.”
Golden State Warriors
Said another rival training staff member: “They may have said, once the leg is warm, ride it. But I can’t imagine (Durant) did enough work to determine 12 minutes out of 14 was appropriate.”
There is a lot of second-guessing going on right now. People are taking sides and assigning blame.
You aren't going to read any of that here because we don't know all of the specifics and aren't privy to the inner workings of the process behind how Durant was cleared.
What matters is that arguably the best player in the NBA is going to miss all of next season. And to quote Warriors superstar Steph Curry:
[RELATED: KD watched end of Game 5 win, FaceTimed with Draymond]
Durant reportedly is traveling to New York to meet with doctors and discuss his options.
We can only hope that somehow the injury is not what we all fear it to be.