It’s a saying that dates back to 1561, when Vince Carter was but a rookie:
“Be optimistic but also be prepared for all possibilities.”
Today we know it as “Hope for the best, prepare for the worst.” It is often applied to serious injuries to celebrated athletes.
As we speak it applies to Kevin Durant, the Warriors’ resident postseason marvel, who strained his right calf in Wednesday’s playoff game against the Houston Rockets. Needless to say, this is a spanner in the works for the Warriors who are nine wins from their stated goal of a third consecutive NBA championship.
It’s a blow to the Warriors’ Bay Area fan base as well, but they’ve been through this before. Presenting a list of five Bay Area stalwarts who left the postseason with an injury and never returned.
1. Reggie Jackson, 1972. The A’s and Tigers took the American League Championship Series to a fifth and final game. In the top of the second inning with Detroit leading 1-0, the A’s employed a double steal, with Mike Epstein moving from first base to second, and Reggie Jackson racing home from third base. Reggie scored the tying run — the A’s would win 2-1 — but tore his left hamstring so badly that he was unable to appear in the World Series. The A’s won anyway, beating the Cincinnati Reds in seven games.
2. Joe Montana, 1991. The 49ers were gunning for a three-peat, having won Super Bowls after the 1988 and ’89 seasons. They sailed through the 1990 season with a 14-2 mark and stiff-armed Washington 28-10 in the divisional round. A little more than five minutes into the fourth quarter of the conference championship game, the 49ers had a 13-9 lead and the ball. Then, disaster.
Montana went back to pass, rolled right and and set his sights downfield. He was destroyed on a blindside hit by New York’s Leonard Marshall. The foggy-headed Montana bruised his sternum and broke his hand. He was done for the season, however long it might last.
It didn’t last long. The Giants cut the 49ers’ lead to 13-12 with a field goal. Backup quarterback Steve Young drove the team to three first downs in hopes of burning the clock. But Roger Craig fumbled, with New York recovering. The Giants moved into field goal range and Matt Bahr kicked the game-winner as time expired.
3. Garrison Hearst, 1999. Steve Young made a prediction before the 1998 season. “If Garrison Hearst can run for 1,000 yards, we’ll throw for 4,000. So it came to pass. The 49ers went 12-4 with Hearst rushing for 1,570 yards and scoring nine touchdowns. Young threw for a career-high 4,170 yards. Impervious to the team’s front office intrigue, the 49ers beat the Packers in the wild card round on Young’s improbable touchdown pass to Terrell Owens with eight seconds left in the game.
Next up was the divisional round and a trip to Atlanta to meet the Falcons. The 49ers were feeling good about their chances. Hearst got the ball on the first play from scrimmage and promptly broke his leg. The 49ers fought gamely, but their run game produced just 46 yards. They got close late but lost 20-18 to the Dirty Birds.
4. Rich Gannon, 2001. In Rich Gannon’s second season with the Raiders, he led the team to a 12-4 record, a rout over Miami in the divisional round, and into its first conference championship game in a decade. Early in the second quarter the game was a scoreless tie. But the play of the game was about to unfold. Gannon dropped back and threw a pass. Pass rusher Tony Siragusa, a 340-pounder, knocked Gannon to the ground and then essentially performed a belly flop on the prostrate quarterback.
Gannon’s left shoulder was devastated. He tried to re-enter the game but ultimately had to leave the offense to backup Bobby Hoying. The Raiders offense, No.3 in the AFC that season, limped to 191 total yards in a 16-3 loss.
5. Jermaine Dye, 2001. Delivered to the A’s via a three-team trade in July, Vacaville native Jermaine Dye energized an A’s team headed for a second consecutive postseason. A’s manager Art Howe thought enough of Dye, who had 26 home runs and 106 RBI that year, to put him in the clean-up spot for his team’s ALDS matchup against the New York Yankees.
The A’s took the first two games in Yankee Stadium, and headed home for Games 3 and 4 in Oakland — their best chance to move on. Game 3 was a 1-0 loss to a Yankees team that mustered just two hits (the same as Dye). This game would gain everlasting fame as the Derek Jeter flip game. New York jumped the A’s in Game 4. Oakland trailed 4-0 in the bottom of the third when Dye came up. You could already sense the sass and bombast leaking out of the A’s balloon.
Then this: Dye fouled a ball off his left leg, breaking his tibia. The freak injury left a hole in the Oakland lineup. They lost decisive Game 5, 5-3, in Yankee Stadium.
As for Durant, it will be next week before he is even re-evaluated. “Be optimistic but also be prepared for all possibilities” has never sounded so daunting.