Kevin Durant, Bosh and Worldpeace set to make big returns this NBA season
It is official! Four-time NBA scoring champion Kevin Durant has been medically cleared to participate in all basketball activities, and will be part of Oklahoma City Thunder’s training camp next week.
After suffering a Jones fracture in the fifth metatarsal of his right foot just before the previous season, Durant missed the first month of the season. Ten days after his return, he was once again sidelined by a sprained right ankle. Complications from the surgery would arise and force him out of action once again, just after the All-Star game.
Three surgeries in six months are what it took for the former NBA Most Valuable Player to be declared fit to play. Sam Presti, General Manager of OKC has stated that Durant is playing freely and unimpeded, and might even increase his average playing time per match this season. That being said, Presti added that opportunities to rest Durant will be taken advantage of.
Kevin Durant’s convalesence and return have a lot riding on it, most of all the Thunder’s hopes of winning an NBA Championship, especially with this being his last season with the team. A championship ring might tip the scale in favour of him renewing his contract and staying with OKC, and his return will ease the burden on his partner-in-crime Russell Westbrook. Speculation aside, every basketball fan, regardless of loyalty, will have their eyes peeled for KD’s comeback.
After the distressing discovery of a blood clot in his right lung kept Chris Bosh out of the second half of the last season, doctors have given him the green light. The two-time NBA Champion with the Miami Heat has reportedly discontinued blood-thinner medication and is expected to begin pre-season practice soon. The ten-time NBA All-Star’s absence from the team was one of the reasons they missed a playoff spot, only the second instance of such an occurrence in the past twelve years.
Bosh will look to rekindle his partnership with re-signed Dwayne Wade, and redeem the team after their poor run last season. The duo will be augmented by the likes of center Hassan Whiteside, veteran forward Amare Stoudemire and rookie forward/shooting guard Justise Winslow.
In a move that raised several eyebrow, Los Angeles Lakers have signed Metta Worldpeace to a one-year contract. A member of the Lakers’ 2010 championship team, Worldpeace parted ways with the team in 2013 through an amnesty clause, after a wane in his scoring. A move to the New York Knicks would prove unfruiful, as they waived him after just twenty-nine games. The former NBA Defensive Player Of The Year spent a year playing in China and Italy, getting ejected in his last outing, a playoff game for Italian club Pallacanestro Cantu.
General Manager of the LA Lakers, Mitch Kupchak feels that the presence and experience of the veteran forward will greatly benefit the younsters in the team. Worldpeace, whose birth name was Ron Artest, is most remembered for his defensive prowess, aberrant behaviour and the infamous Detroit Pistons brawl in 2004 for which he received an 86-match suspension.