OAKLAND — The image is startling, somber, a little haunting.
Kevin Durant, tubes in his nostrils, a powder-blue gown stretched across his chest, pillows propped behind his head, a hospital bracelet on his left forearm, an IV bag hanging nearby. Eyes narrow, face taut, emotionless.
"I'm hurting deeply," Durant wrote in the Instagram post accompanying that photo on Wednesday, "but I'm OK."
Somewhere, out of the snapshot frame, was a bandaged right leg, where doctors had surgically repaired his ruptured Achilles tendon that morning.
Just two nights earlier, Durant was dancing in an arena hallway, flinging three-pointers in a critical NBA Finals game, diving for loose balls, barking, bouncing, smiling.