DeMarcus Cousins was on the Golden State Warriors super team during the 2018-19 NBA season. Unfortunately for him, this also means that he had one of the front-row seats to all the franchise’s gruesome injuries that took effect in the 2019 NBA Finals. Five years on, he reflected on just how catastrophic all the events were, and how he feels about them to this day.
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On The Knuckleheads podcast, Cousins talked about how the team felt it was unbeatable, even in the middle of the NBA Finals. However, as he explained, there is not a single player on the planet that is immune to the injury bug, and how it was this phenomenon that derailed the team.
“It was a rough run. It was a lot of hype with that team coming in, it was considered one of the greatest… Obviously it was pressure to win, and on top of being pressured to win, we wanted to win. We expected to win, we thought we were going to win it. But that injury bug bro! Nobody is exempt from it.”
Cousins then admitted that he wonders what it would have been like if the team won, and had stayed together.
“You know, it sucks how it ended, because obviously that is the year KD [Kevin Durant] ended up leaving. So it was a lot that kind of went into that. But, you know I always think. Like, if would have won it that year, the way we were expected to, what would have happened from that point? What would the league have looked like moving forward?”
Much like Boogie said, it would have indeed been interesting to see how, not only the future of the Warriors, but the NBA as a whole, would have looked like had Golden State won it in 2019.
However, in the end, the injury bug proved too strong for this all-time great side to handle. One of the biggest casualties of the injury bug was Kevin Durant, who tore his Achilles tendon and subsequently handed the title to the Toronto Raptors.
Kevin Durant worries for his career after his injury in 2019
An Achilles injury is not something that more than a very few athletes in NBA history have returned from positively. So, when Durant felt his Achilles tear, he felt that his career was over. On The Boardroom, he explained:
“I heard a pop. So, I’m like, ‘Oh my gosh’. And my whole basketball career just flashed before my eyes. Everything. Everything I did, everything I thought about, all my favorite moments, all my bad moments, it flashed. And that’s why, when you watch, I’m just sitting there, gazing into the crowd, before somebody came over to help me up”
Fortunately, KD has looked just as good as he ever was before his injury. Just how positive his return has been is something close to unprecedented.
Durant still may regret going down in the NBA Finals and losing his chance at a three-peat. However, he will also be thankful that he was able to make such an incredible return against all odds.
