Kevin Durant Expected to Generate More Headlines Before He Actually Misses Entire Season

Webster's Dictionary [website] defines "expected" as "being in accordance with the prescribed, normal, or logical course of events." Kevin Durant is expected to miss the 2019-2020 NBA season after undergoing Achilles surgery in June. If he does end up playing this season, it would be "unexpected," which is an antonym of "expected." As of September 2019, there is literally no way to know how Kevin Durant will heal and feel by the spring so it is completely pointless to speculate on whether that could happen.

Yet here we are.

Over the last few days, while nothing changed with Durant, and no miracle cure for a torn Achilles was discovered, the media has been trying to get everyone all worked up about Kevin Durant maybe playing this season. This tweet, from Brian Lewis of the New York Post, appears to be Patient Zero.

Sentiment is growing around many! A lot of people are saying Kevin Durant could be back this season! They have no names or faces, but they are real and I have talked to them!

Mind you, neither Lewis nor anyone else on the planet is saying Durant will play, just that he might. This is exactly the same as saying he is expected to miss the season. He's expected to, but you don't really know for certain until it passes. It got so bad that Rachel Nichols has resorted to going all "VIDEO: John Oliver Destroys [blank]" on the Internet.

Now today Brooklyn Nets GM Sean Marks reset the entire story by saying that... Durant is expected to miss the season. Which is the same exact thing as before and even more exactly the same as before that.

Now, presumably we'll go a couple months until we hear about this again. Probably around the time Durant gets back on a basketball court and starts hitting some free throws and we hear how he's recovering like Wolverine. Or maybe when he starts to play some light 2-on-2 with coaches and we hear how good he looks. Or maybe the Nets get off to a good start or are hovering around the 8-seed as we near Christmas and people start to wonder aloud if Durant might come back and the Nets could really make a run in a wide-open Eastern Conference!

Again, that won't mean anything because he'll still be months from having any sort of clearance from doctors and will have many days' worth of hurdles to clear and set-backs to avoid. Until then, all we really should be worried about is Kyrie Irving's eye.