‘I want him to know that he’s not done’: How Kevin Durant uplifted injured Villanova guard Justin Moore

NEW ORLEANS -- After Villanova guard Justin Moore tore his Achilles tendon last weekend, his coach made a connection to another famous torn Achilles. Jay Wright reached into his own bag of connections to get hold of Brooklyn Nets superstar Kevin Durant.

Villanova’s coach was an assistant for the U.S. Olympics men’s basketball team last summer that won a gold medal, led by Durant.

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“I called Sean Ford at USA Basketball to get Kevin’s number,’’ Wright said, mentioning the Villanova graduate who is the men’s national team director for USA Basketball. “I texted Kevin. He called me. And Kevin said, ‘I was watching that and it looked just like — I knew it when he went down it looked just like mine.’ So we talked for a while about it.”

Durant, now back doing his thing for the Nets, had ruptured his Achilles tendon during the 2019 NBA Finals and did not play the entire 2019-20 season.

“What was so impressive to me was, [Durant] said, ‘I’d like to talk to him, talk to the parents about the process. I want to tell him that …’ ” Wright said. “He listed himself, Klay Thompson, a couple other guys I can’t remember — he goes, look, these guys had it in the NBA. And people in the NBA know now that you can come back from that.”

Moore, a junior, got hurt late in the NCAA South Region final against Houston last weekend, and had surgery Monday in Philadelphia. A Google search of the injury often yields results such as “Achilles tears often spell doom for basketball players.” Scary stuff — but the headlines have been updated.

“Before me, when that happened to you, NBA people thought you were done,” Durant told Wright. “But so many people have come back from that now, I want him to know that he’s not done and NBA people know that, too.”

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An Achilles tear is not the only thing the two have in common, as like Durant, Moore grew up in the basketball rich area just outside Washington D.C. The two talked about the rehab process and coming back.

“He said, ‘I’ll explain it to him,’” Wright said. “ ‘Any time through his process he wants to use me, I’ll do it for him.’ So I said, great, and I gave him Justin’s number and he FaceTimed Justin. And they had a great talk. Justin said it was really comforting to know and to know that he’s got him as kind of an advisor on his way through this.”