The Toronto Raptors’ Kyle Lowry says fans who cheered when Kevin Durant fell to the floor in pain likely didn’t know how badly the Golden State Warriors star was injured.
Durant had been on the sidelines since May due to a calf strain, and Monday’s Game 5 marked his first against Toronto in this series.
Watch: Durant suffers injury on night of his return
Everything was coming up for the Warriors, with their star squad out in full force and maintaining a healthy lead over the Raptors out of the gate. But in the second quarter, Durant made a quick move that sent him down clutching the Achilles tendon in his right leg.
Things got worse from there: Some Toronto fans started cheering after Durant’s fall, and the mood only shifted after Raptors players like Lowry, Danny Green and Serge Ibaka waved their hands in disapproval and told them to cut it.
Moments later, fans began applauding Durant and chanting his name as he was escorted out of the game.
After the Warriors got the last laugh and pulled a stunning one-point win to extend the series to Game 6, Lowry told media that the reaction to the Golden State forward’s injury was unacceptable.
“In this league, we’re all brothers.”
- Kyle Lowry
``I don’t think the fans knew the significance of the injury,” he said. “They kind [had] just seen he went down.”
Lowry then told reporters that all players share a bond in the sport, and that no one wants to see a competitor get injured, much less have his pain celebrated.
Watch the moment below, around the 1:12 mark:
“In this league, we’re all brothers. At the end of the day, we’re all brothers. It’s a small brotherhood,” Lowry said.
“For me, it was just … we don’t want anything to ever happen like that.”
“We don’t want that type of stuff.”
On the Warriors’ side, some players were a bit more critical of the fans who cheered for Durant’s injury.
“That’s crazy. That’s crazy,” the Warriors’ Draymond Green said of the cheers. “Come on ... that’s classless. For me, I’ve always witnessed Canadians being the nicest people that I’ve ever encountered.”
DeMarcus Cousins, who had suffered from a similar Achilles injury in 2018 that put him out of commission for just over a year, had even harsher words.
“Trash. So trashy,” he said. “We only idolize superstar athletes, not human beings. It’s always about what we can do between those lines.”
With files from The Canadian Press