It was a big gamble. Literally days after Kevin Durant blew out his Achilles, the Nets, under their then principal owner, Mikhail Prokhorov, and their incoming one, Joe Tsai, agreed to pay KD $164 million over four years, including $38 million in the first year, understanding he wouldn’t play at all.
What would the future Kevin Durant would look like? Would he be 50 percent of the old KD? 80 percent? 90 percent? NO ONE believed he’d be 100 percent ... but he is. Maybe even better! Okay, maybe two people believed it — Durant and Dr. Martin O’Malley, the Hospital for Special Surgery orthopedist who had repaired Durant’s ankle when he was with the Thunder, and who wore another hat as well, that of the Nets foot/ankle specialist.