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Brooklyn Nets forward Kevin Durant made it clear on Tuesday that he is ready to go as he edges closer to his debut for the team after missing a year-and-a-half of action due to a torn Achilles.
The two-time NBA champion and 10-time All-Star hasn’t played in an NBA game since going down hurt during Game 5 of the 2018-19 Finals as the Golden State Warriors were beaten by the Toronto Raptors.
Durant signed with the Nets in the summer of 2019 and missed the whole of last season amid the longest layoff of his professional career by some stretch.
“It was definitely new,” Durant told reporters. “I’d never experienced that kind of injury before, learning how to walk again, needing assistance in everything you’d do for the first three to four months.
“I’d been through surgery before, but the longest recover was three months. Here, that was just the first phase, and you’re getting around on a scooter. I had to learn how to walk, learn how to run, learn how to jump. I had to build my body back up again.”
2:02 Durant continued to explain he has been attacking every drill ‘as hard as I could’, admitting he may not have been fully fit heading into the season regardless of the injury that has sidelined him for 18 months.
“I mean, I’ve been in the league for 14 years. Even if I didn’t have an Achilles’, I probably wouldn’t be 100 per cent, you know? So the wear and tear over time, I guess, but I feel solid,” he added.
The 32-year-old averaged 26 points, 5.9 assists and 6.4 rebounds per game during the 2018-19 regular season, before starring on the Warriors’ path to the NBA Finals.
A two-time finals MVP winner, Durant has career regular-season averages of 27 points, 7.1 rebounds and 4.1 assists per game.
Having been among the most dominant players in the league prior to his injury, he now heads into the upcoming campaign with a slightly different attitude as he looks to embrace the season game-by-game.
2:21 “I definitely used to have crazy anxiety wondering how I was going to play the next day or the next series and it used to drive me crazy, you know what I’m saying?” Durant explained.
“With my mental health, I guess, it’s easier for me to have this approach just to wait and see what happens and then falling back on the work that I’ve put in.
“If I fall back on that work, I won’t have to worry too much about what will happen. I already know it’ll come naturally.”
Durrant’s arrival in Brooklyn came a week before that of guard Kyrie Irving in a double-acquisition that immediately enhanced the Nets’ reputation as contenders over the coming years.
Irving’s season was over by March when he was ruled out for the remainder of the campaign after just 20 games due to a shoulder injury.
The pair are set to finally play alongside one another on the court later this month, naturally inheriting the responsibility as key leaders under newly-appointed head coach Steve Nash.
0:50 “I always appreciate the game, I always was grateful to play this game every single day,” said Durant. “I’m looking forward to having some new energy, some fresh energy to play with on this team, especially the younger players on this team.
“I’m looking forward to helping them any way that I can, telling them about the experiences that I went through in this league. And hopefully it kind of helps them as they go throughout this league.
“I’m just looking forward to stepping into this position.”
Coach Nash admitted on Tuesday the team will be cautious when easing both back in, a reality Durant understands but one he insists will be met with some reluctance.
“In a game, when Coach tries to pull me out early unexpectedly, of course, I’m going to push back, but I know they have my best interest,” he said.
