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Jalen Rose Blames Media & Overall Sports Culture For KD’s Injury In Emotional Rant

Kevin Durant’s comeback from a calf injury ended in something that couldn’t have been worse.

After playing an incredible first quarter, looking like he hasn’t missed a step, KD went down early in the second suffering a tear of the Achilles tendon, an injury that has kept most other players out for a year, never reaching their old form again (Kobe, Boogie etc).

Many people blame the Warriors, some blame the media and sports culture – one of which being former NBA star Jalen Rose.

Even before Game 4, Rose reported that he did not believe Durant would make a return in the Finals, after his on-court session the day before did not go well on any level.

But Durant was eventually cleared to practice again and play Game 5 – with the well known outcome. Rose had a very passionate and emotional take on the situation.

“One, I blame the overall culture of sports. There’s a herd mentality that takes place when you’re a professional athlete… If the Golden State Warriors were up 3-1, KD would not have returned. But since they were down 3-1, he was forced to return based on all of the chatter that we knew was going to take place. ‘He’s soft, he really didn’t want it, he wasn’t committed to the team. Oh, and he was leaving anyway.’ And he knows that. That’s why he decided he wanted to come back.

There’s a group called State Property that I loved growing up. And one of the things, I think it was Oschino and Sparks said: ‘People will bring flowers to your funeral but don’t bring you soup when you’re sick.’ That’s what I’m seeing for KD right now. Everybody fake acting like they caring about KD’s best interest when they don’t! It’s phony to me.”