Nets’ Durant rules himself out for rest of NBA season

LOS ANGELES: NBA superstar Kevin Durant, who has not played since he tore his Achilles tendon a year ago, said he would not make his debut with the Brooklyn Nets when the season resumes late July in Orlando.

“My season is over. I don’t plan on playing at all,” in the 2019-2020 season, Durant said in an interview Friday with The Undefeated.

“We decided last summer when it first happened that I was just going to wait until the following season. I had no plans of playing at all this season.” The NBA suspended its season on March 11 as the COVID-19 pandemic erupted, leaving professional sport in North America at a standstill.

The league’s board of governors on Thursday gave the green light to a plan to restart the season at Disney World in Orlando, Florida on July 31, without spectators.

The news was followed by speculation over whether Durant would appear.

Durant, who was the NBA Finals Most Valuable Player for the Golden State Warriors in their 2017 and 2018 championship runs, ruptured his right Achilles tendon in last June’s NBA Finals.

He then left California to join Brooklyn, where fans were hoping he would form a formidable duet with Kyrie Irving, who also arrived last summer.

“It’s just best for me to wait. I don’t think I’m ready to play that type of intensity right now in the next month,” said Durant.

He said however that his rehab was going well. “I’m doing well. Working out every day. I’m moving. I’m feeling like a normal player again,” he told The Undefeated.

Durant won numerous year-end awards and became the first freshman to be named Naismith College Player of the Year. As a professional, he has won two NBA championships, an NBA Most Valuable Player Award, two Finals MVP Awards, two NBA All-star Game Most Valuable Player Awards, four NBA scoring titles, the NBA Rookie of the Year Award, and two Olympic gold medals. Durant has also been selected to nine ALL-NBA teams and ten NBA All-star teams.

Plans to restart the league received the approval of the players’ union on Friday, although some details remain to be ironed out.

Durant, who is among a dozen NBA players who tested positive for coronavirus in the spring, has not said whether he will accompany his teammates to Florida.