Steve Kerr commends Raptors players for stopping crowd from jeering injured Durant
Kevin Durant suffered an Achilles injury during Game 5 of the NBA Finals, and was unfortunately jeered by some fans in attendance at Scotiabank Arena upon collapsing to the ground.
However, the Toronto Raptors’ players quickly shut that down, and it was much appreciated by Golden State Warriors coach Steve Kerr, who was devastated following his team’s 106-105 victory Monday.
“The Raptors players were telling the crowd to be quiet, out of respect, which I appreciated. Some of the fans were cheering when it happened, and I think the Raptors players understood how serious it was and they sort of quieted the crowd. There was just a couple minutes there where it all seemed so eerie and strange, and it took maybe a little bit for both teams to collect themselves,” Kerr said.
Raptors head coach Nick Nurse was also shaken by Durant’s injury.
“Well, for me I was -- I really felt for him, right, I know he was probably not a hundred percent and he gave it a shot tonight, right, and just made kind of a move on his own and he went down kind of on his own, I think, without a collision or landing on something, so you knew it was probably not good,” Nurse said.
”But the moment for me is, I mean, I love KD. I love watching him play and I -- when anybody goes down you're saddened by it, but when one of the great players like that goes down, it's almost shocking.”
Toronto players also hated to see one of the game’s all-time greats limp off the court.
“In this league it’s a small brotherhood and we don’t ever want to see any of our brothers go down,” Raptors guard Kyle Lowry said of Durant during his postgame media availability.
“I know we’re opponents and competing as hard as we can but you never want to see an injury like that,” Raptors guard Fred VanVleet added.
More Raptors coverage from Yahoo Sports
