It was more than fatigue that led Kevin Durant to withdraw from Team USA this past summer.
The Oklahoma City Thunder superstar somewhat unexpectedly pulled out of the 2014 FIBA World Cup, citing physical and mental exhaustion as his reasons for not playing in Spain, but it appears the horrific injury Paul George suffered played a large factor in his decision.
In his upcoming HBO Sports documentary “The Offseason: Kevin Durant,” which will premiere Tuesday at 10 p.m., he reveals that watching George break his right leg during a Team USA scrimmage rattled him and influenced him to withdraw, according to Michael Lee of the Washington Post.
“It took everything out of me seeing that,” Durant told friend Randy Williams and a Nike executive at his camp, per the Washington Post. “Everything I had to play for Team USA, that injury stripped it away from me.”
Durant admitted that it “didn’t feel right” to play following the injury to George. Although he termed it a “freak accident,” he began to worry something similar could happen to him.
“When you see something like that, so gruesome, in front of you, of course you’re going to think, ‘This could happen to me.'”
Photo via Stephen R. Sylvanie/USA TODAY Sports Images
