Oklahoma City Thunder superstar Kevin Durant underwent successful bone graft surgery on Tuesday. The procedure was meant to fix a Jones fracture in Durant's right foot. It is his third foot-related procedure in a year.
KD is now slated to miss the rest of the regular season and playoffs. In fact, he won't be picking up a basketball in a meaningful capacity for another four to six months.
It's a sad set of circumstances for the one of the game's best players, coming off his first MVP season. Durant scored 25.4 points and pulled down 6.6 rebounds this season, but only in a 27 game sample size.
Now speculation turns to whether Kevin Durant will ever be the same NBA player. It's a morbid thought, but one definitely worth considering. Stars both old (Bill Walton) and recent (Yao Ming, Grant Hill) have seen their primes cut short by them.
NBA writer Royce Young posted this scary fact about players who have had setbacks on foot injuries before Durant.
With Jones fracture repairs, 92-95% experience full recovery with the screw insert. For the 5-8% that don't, the bone graft if the next step
— Royce Young (@royceyoung) March 27, 2015
Perhaps the closest comp to Durant at the moment is Brooklyn Nets power forward Brook Lopez. Lopez never missed a game from 2008 to 2011, before only playing in only 96 of 246 possible games between late 2011 and 2014. However, he's back this season, appearing in 62 games and scoring 17 points a game.
A similar fate might be in store for Durant -- his career isn't over, not by a long shot, but a combination of smart rest and minutes management will go a long way toward extending his prime against this injury as long as possible.
Then again, with KD entering free agency in 2016 already, the Thunder may begin to think about some tough decisions (they wouldn't trade him, would they?) in the coming off-season.
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