So here's what happened.
On Tuesday morning, Warriors forward Andre Iguodala was a guest on The Breakfast Club radio show out of New York.
Charlamage tha God asked Iguodala if the Warriors should take any blame for Kevin Durant tearing his Achilles in Game 5 of the NBA Finals against the Raptors.
"So that's a really good question. I don't think his injury was the reason for the other injury," the 2015 NBA Finals MVP said. "The way the body is set up, the calf should have went out first before the Achilles.
"So that was like an act of God. The Achilles was just gonna go out no matter if he was injured before that or not."
So you don't think the Warriors have any responsibility for maybe pushing KD out there too soon?
Sports
"That's the tough part, too. We have a really good training staff. Our traning staff is one of the best in the world," Iguodala said. "And I feel like they got him back. The tough thing is -- when you're an athlete and you're hurt, everybody's looking at you sideways.
"Last year, it happened to me. I missed the last three games of the Houston series. We barely get out of that series and now they're looking at me like, 'When you coming back?' And I had a fractured leg but it's being put out there like it's a bone bruise. I'm like, 'No, it's fractured.'
"So I'm fighting with the team, I'm fighting with people, I'm fighting with the media. And then my teammates ask me every day, 'How you feeling? How you feeling?' So with K, he's getting it from everywhere, too. Not just from the team, but from family or people close to him.
"And what do they always say in sports? 'Oh, he was a tough guy. He played through injury.' You're validated as an athlete if you win a championship for how tough you were. If you sit out, it's like, 'Oh, he's not tough.'"
Unsurprisingly, people started criticizing the Warriors' training staff for misdiagnosing Iguodala's injury last year. But that is not what happened.
1) Of course the training staff knew this (sometimes you don't reveal the full nature of the injury for competitive reasons)
2) The Warriors had a different training staff in 2018 than they had in 2019
3) Iguodala had a "spider fracture" https://t.co/tCxUb4n8nE https://t.co/8YkKFW1nCu— Drew Shiller (@DrewShiller) June 25, 2019
On Wednesday, Iguodala set the record straight in a conversation with Mark Medina of the Bay Area News Group.
"I don't think it was internal pressure at all," Iguodala said of how the Warriors' training staff handled his left leg injury. "It had nothing to do with me, When you read an MRI, it can be read so many different ways. Even if I thought what it was or they thought what it was, we were all clear and on the same page.
My leg was stable. In that area, even if you have a bruise or a fracture, it is very similar. People don't realize that. We were both on the same page that it was stable and that part of the body was fine to go play. Regardless of what I thought it was or what they thought it was or what anybody thought it was, we were all on the same page that I was good to go. It was a stable leg."
Durant sustained a significant right calf strain in Game 5 of the Warriors' second-round series against the Rockets. He missed the Dubs' next nine games before returning for Game 5 in Toronto with the Warriors down three games to one.
"Athletes sacrifice themselves to win a championship," Iguodala told BANG. "Do you know how many guys would've killed themselves to win a championship? That's the point I'm making and what I'm saying in the book – the pressures of an athlete go much deeper than what people realize.
"They don't see us as humans, sometimes. They're missing that human element."
As Durant wrote on Instagram following his surgery on June 12:
Basketball is my biggest love and I wanted to be out there that night because that's what I do. I wanted to help my teammates on our quest for the three peat.
Its just the way things go in this game and I'm proud that I gave it all I physically could, and I'm proud my brothers got the W.
The main reason Iguodala's comments on The Breakfast Club gained steam was because Durant was involved.
Iguodala already discussed his 2018 "spider fracture" with BANG back in late September.
"The injury kind of bothered me because there was a lot going on behind closed doors that was bothering me. I hadn't missed a playoff game my entire career. It isn't about waiting around. I know what it was. A lot of people knew what it was. But I just went along with it.
Whatever you say it is, a bruise or whatever, I should be back day to day. But I know it wasn't day to day. All right, cool. Players can fold under that type of scrutiny ... if I can't talk to ya'll, I'm isolated. That can do some damage to players. I've seen it firsthand. Guys fold and don't attempt to come back. But I tried to keep the right mindset. I had the ‘whatever' mentality where I don't really care."
[RELATED: Durant, Warriors haven't had breakdown in trust, Woj says]
Lastly, as BANG noted on Wednesday: "The Warriors have an internal policy that requires approval from the player and his representatives to approve on the wording of their respective injury."
So while it clearly was frustrating for Iguodala to have people question why he wasn't playing through a contusion/bone bruise, he was onboard with the public messaging.
OK. Enjoy the rest of your day.
