Depending on what you heard after Kevin Durant crumpled to the floor early in the second quarter of Game 5 of the NBA Finals on Monday night, you're either disgusted or encouraged.
After Durant looked great early on his first game back, the air got sucked out of the Warriors when he appeared to re-injure the calf muscle that forced him to miss more than a month during the current playoff run.
Kevin Durant appears to aggravate his calf injury and heads to the locker room early in the second quarter. pic.twitter.com/VXu3SmTS8Y— SportsCenter (@SportsCenter) June 11, 2019
Shortly after Durant dropped to the Scotiabank Arena court in pain, it sure seemed like a large portion of the Raptors crowd was -- at least momentarily -- pleased to discover the Warriors star likely would be unable to continue. Many people took note of what they deemed to be inappropriate behavior by the crowd, and that included the Warriors themselves, several of whom motioned their displeasure toward fans.
Some Raptors fans really cheered KD's injury and waved goodbye. SMH. pic.twitter.com/8vuqYZKkC9— Warriors on NBCS (@NBCSWarriors) June 11, 2019
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Crowd's reaction to KD's injury and the sight of him being helped into the locker room was classless beyond anything I've heard about Canada.— Monte Poole (@MontePooleNBCS) June 11, 2019
How do you cheer when an athlete gets hurt...unreal.— Logan Couture (@Logancouture) June 11, 2019
Then again, after Durant got up and hobbled to the Warriors' bench and then into the locker room, the crowd shifted to a more encouraging tone.
Raptors fans chanting "KD, KD, KD"— Zach Lowe (@ZachLowe_NBA) June 11, 2019
Classy response from Raptors players to get crowd to scratch those cheers when Durant got hurt. They called for crowd to calm down. Then crowd shifted to "KD! KD!" chants as he walked off to locker room.— Michael Wallace (@MyMikeCheck) June 11, 2019
Needless to say, it was a terrible situation to begin with, given the seriousness of Durant's injury. But the fans' initial reaction made it that much tougher to swallow, even if they eventually did figure it out.
