Kyrie says KD won’t be rushed back into action

NEW YORK >> Kyrie Irving won’t allow anyone to rush Kevin Durant back to the court this time.

Irving said Friday that Durant wasn’t ready to play when he returned in the NBA Finals, where he was quickly injured again. Irving said his new teammate’s health wasn’t valued enough, and that won’t be the case now that they are together on the Brooklyn Nets.

“We all know K was not ready to play in that environment. We all know that, whether people want to admit it or not,” Irving said. “He was out 31 days and we put him on the national stage in the finals to end up selling a product that came before the person, Kevin. And now, I’m here to protect that.”

Durant injured a calf playing for Golden State during the second round of the playoffs and missed a little more than a month before returning for Game 5 of the NBA Finals in Toronto. He lasted just 12 minutes before going down with a ruptured Achilles tendon that required surgery.

The Nets expect Durant to miss the season, though Durant said he makes his own decisions.

Durant hasn’t said he felt pressured to return, even though the Warriors were down 3-1 and facing elimination. But Irving believes he was, saying a lot of people were responsible for what happened during the fieriest remarks by either All-Star on the day.

Irving knows there will be plenty of questions about when Durant will suit up for the Nets, just as there were throughout the first four games of the NBA Finals.

“I’m going to be the protector of that all throughout the year,” Irving said. And extreme caution will be part of that. “I’m very patient,” Irving said. “I’ll be overpatient with Kevin because I don’t want anything like that to happen to anyone again, especially on that type of stage where it happened and him having to answer questions about whether he’s coming back or not.”