Kevin Durant shared his thoughts on Nikola Jokic's knee injury, pointing to his own past experiences. Durant said injuries like this cannot be controlled and warned against calling Jokic injury-prone.
Houston Rockets veteran Kevin Durant knows how unlucky knee injuries can change the story around a player. After Nikola Jokic went down this week, Durant shared his thoughts and showed support for the Denver Nuggets star.
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Durant spoke on Thursday night after the Rockets beat the Nets 120-96 in Brooklyn. The game marked his return to the arena where his last games with the Nets ended because of knee injuries.
"One thing I don't want to see with Nikola is like, they started calling me 'injury prone' after that, but hopefully they don't start with him because it's one of those freak injuries that you can't really control," Durant said per ESPN. "You can do all the work you can, but somebody falls into your knee, that's just tough."
"So it's good to see it's only four weeks and it's not anything too big," Durant said. "It wasn't an MCL sprain or Level 2, it felt like it was just a tweak and he's going to be back out there soon. He's great for the game and you want to see the best players on the floor at all times."
Jokic got hurt Monday night in Miami. Late in the second quarter, Denver teammate Spencer Jones stepped on Jokic's left foot while defending a drive by Jaime Jaquez Jr.
The Nuggets center hyperextended his knee, lost balance, and went down, grabbing it. Jokic's injury came without contact from an opponent, making it a tough break for the reigning Finals MVP.
Durant has been through similar moments. In January 2022, he injured his left knee when teammate Bruce Brown was pushed backward and fell into him. That injury forced Durant to miss 21 games.
A year later, Durant suffered another knee injury on the same Miami court where Jokic was hurt. In January 2023, Jimmy Butler fell into Durant's right knee, leading to another ligament issue.
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