Durant confident foot injury woes over
The 2014-15 season was a nightmare for Kevin Durant, whose MVP defense and championship aspirations for his Oklahoma City Thunder went up in smoke thanks to a Jones fracture that wouldn't heal.
After injuring his right foot during the preseason, Durant underwent surgery to put a screw down the center of his fifth metatarsal. He returned a month into the regular season, but had another surgery - this one to replace the screw because it was irritating an adjacent bone (the cuboid). Just as nightmares often do, the fracture recurred.
"It had a crack in it," Durant told Bleacher Report's Kevin Ding of his pesky foot bone. The breakage necessitated a third surgery, which ended the 26-year-old's season after just 27 games.
Durant was determined to put the issue to permanent rest. He opted to have a third surgery using non-FDA-approved bone-graft material. The procedure - designed to protect against bone overgrowth - would prolong his recovery time. He describes it like a crude arts and crafts project:
"They stuffed some bone-graft thing in, and they pasted over the top of the area," he said. "That healed up in a couple of weeks. But then they stuck something else in there just to smooth it out and make sure it was thick. They did a lot.
"I got like an extra layer of bone on the side of my foot that they put in there. That's why it took longer to heal. Keep it firm. I could've gone another route with surgery. That was the longest, and that was the safest."
Now Durant is back in action, working his way back into game shape at USA Basketball's minicamp in Las Vegas. He's focused on the upcoming season - specifically on "not getting cussed out" by teammate Russell Westbrook.
"I can't do too much no more," he said. "I love putting in work; I love being out on the court. But early on, I have to ease back into that part of it - two-a-days or working out after practice or working out when I land in a city or whatever I used to do."
Though the All-Star is cleared to play and his foot is "healed enough that based on basic evidence it should not break again," the bone will continue to heal for more than a year, Ding points out.
The good news, for now, is surgery was a success and Durant feels comfortable again. The nightmare is presumably over.
"I knew it was over after this," he said. "No more fracture, no more irritation in my foot. Everything was perfect in the third one."