Suns' Kevin Durant Reveals He Thought 2019 Achilles Injury Would End His NBA Career

Kevin Durant lost an entire season due to the torn Achilles he suffered in the 2019 NBA Finals, and he thought at the time the outlook might be more dire.

The 14-time All-Star told ESPN's Baxter Holmes he was concerned his NBA career was in serious jeopardy.

"That's what I was thinking," he said. "Because that's all I was hearing, that this s--t is over."

Before Durant, the track record for NBA players post-Achilles tears wasn't encouraging. Kobe Bryant, Elton Brand and DeMarcus Cousins continued playing, but their careers weren't the same again. The same was true for some lesser names (Brandon Jennings, Wesley Matthews and Anderson Varejão, among others).

Durant cited Bryant in his interview with Holmes to explain how a torn Achilles was considered "just such a career-ending injury."

The 35-year-old also laid out the monotonous nature of the recovery, which can be a challenge on its own.

"Early in the process, it was learning to walk on two feet again," he said. "... It's a tedious process, man, where you have to really, really monitor your body every ... single ... day. And every moment matters, every second matters when you're trying to recover from that injury."

However, Durant along with the Golden State Warriors' Klay Thompson and New York Liberty's Breanna Stewart have all shown the long-term consequences of an Achilles tear may no longer be what they once were.

In the case of Durant, he has averaged 28.2 points on 53.2 percent shooting, including 40.9 percent on three-pointers, across his four seasons since the injury.

The performance of the 6'11" forward has dipped slightly relative to his peak years with the Warriors and Golden State Warriors, but you would never have guessed he had such a devastating injury if you didn't already know.

Durant is clearly looking to win another NBA championship before he walks away from the game. Even if he fails in that pursuit, simply getting to this point has only added to his legacy.