Kevin Durant is undoubtedly the biggest baby in the entire NBA because of his immature sensitive disposition, especially when he interacts with the sports media and fans on social media.
You might not have heard this before but Durant actually made secret Twitter burner accounts so he could defend himself to fans on the gargantuan social media platform.
But if you thought Kevin Durant was an immature child before wait until you hear this nonsense.
There was a time when Kevin Durant was one of the most likable players in the NBA. That’s not a joke. The Seattle Supersonics (before they became the OKC Thunder) drafted Durant with second overall pick in 2007 just behind one of the biggest busts in NBA history, Greg Oden.
The biggest criticism about him coming out of the draft was that he was too lanky and couldn’t even bench-press his weight. Five years later, along with the help of Russell Westbrook, he led the Thunder to the NBA Finals before getting swept by the Big 3 in Miami. But he put the league on notice then.
Durant won the NBA MVP in 2014 and that’s when everyone fell in love with him. It wasn’t winning; it was the speech he gave. Specifically, it was the emotional heartfelt sentiments about God and also the thing he said about his mother, coincidentally, just in time for Mother’s Day. He told her, “You the real MVP!” as he wept on stage.
But then he flipped on a dime. It was bizarre. Durant began aggressively lashing out at the sports media. All the while, he’s also lambasting fans with Twitter burner accounts and was caught doing it. To be fair, those critical fans lashed out first.
And then he did what many consider to be one of the weakest moves by a superstar in NBA history. His Thunder lost in the Western Conference Finals to the 73-9 Golden State Warriors and then a few months later joined them in free agency – creating one of the biggest imbalances in the history of the league.
Durant became a villain. And just when you thought he might have turned it all around in the public perception during the 2019 Finals when he came back from a hamstring injury too early and tore his Achilles, he ruined it again.
The two-time Finals MVP informed the Warriors he would join the Nets and was met with nothing but polite appreciation from Golden State executives, even planning to retire his number.
That’s when his grievances against the Warriors treatment of him “coincidentally” leaked.
The Undefeated’s Marc J. Spears spoke to Durant’s former Oklahoma City Thunder teammate Kendrick Perkins and another unnamed “source close to Durant,” both of whom said Durant felt “under-appreciated” during his time in the Bay Area.
Perkins told Spears that Durant had “one foot out the door” during the season, and the unnamed source said “several things that took place over the past year that caused the star to leave.”
Spears wrote, “There was always the sense that the 10-time All-Star felt like a distant second fiddle to Stephen Curry. The love for Curry in the Bay Area certainly was understandable as he was a homegrown draft pick in 2009 and the face of the franchise. But perhaps it would have helped the Warriors’ cause if their fans showed more love and appreciation for Durant’s elite achievements.”
That’s exhibit A of childish behavior.
Think about it; what kind of spoiled athlete wouldn’t be absolutely thrilled by their teammate doing well in his absence? And what kind of person is threatened by the idea that the teammate who was there before them is beloved? A selfish one: that’s who.
The Warriors allegedly heavily recruited Durant when he joined them in free agency three years ago. Apparently Andre Iguodala and Klay Thompson had been planning this move for years, dating all the way back to the 2014 USA FIBA Team.
And then it was the perfect storm following the NBA Finals in 2016 when those 73-9 Warriors shockingly blew a 3-1 series lead to LeBron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers. Durant also became a free agent. Literally right after the Warriors lost, Draymond Green called Durant and began recruiting him knowing free agency for the next season was only weeks away.
Green pitched him on the idea “Strength in Numbers,” with Klay Thompson and Steph Curry being arguably being the best shooting backcourt in the history of the game – Steph also being two-time NBA MVP – and Green being a two-time Defensive Player of the Year. Then add KD to that and you get “Strength in Numbers.”
Green said of the conversation, “We asked him how many championships do you think we can win with the way the team is now? How many championships can you win without us? How many do you think we can win together?”
But would it work?
Of course it would. Durant and the Warriors won back-to-back NBA titles in the first two years and the former Thunder star would also win consecutive NBA Finals MVP in the process.
And then the third season rolled around. They weren’t just obvious favorites, they were the most favored team to win it all for the third year in a row in the history of the NBA. This might’ve been the greatest team ever assembled – yes, even over the Showtime Lakers and the 90s Chicago Bulls.
You may have heard the term “championship hangover” before, which basically implies it’s harder to repeat given the grind of the season leading to lackluster and apathy throughout the season.
Although the third season absolutely had those moments, apparently the relationship between Durant and some of the Warriors players began to sour over the course of the year as well. Actually, it was Durant and nearly all the players.
In November 2018, Green and Durant famously had a heated argument on the Warriors bench in a game against the Los Angeles Clippers. Then reportedly the incident carried over into the locker room afterwards. The alleged situation resulted in Green telling Durant to leave in free agency because the Warriors didn’t need him anymore.
Here’s the video.
Another angle of KD and Draymond jawing at each other after regulation. pic.twitter.com/Lp7qazA7xt
— TheWarriorsTalk (@TheWarriorsTalk) November 13, 2018
Via Yahoo, “Green called Durant [an expletive]. ‘You’re a [expletive] and you know you’re a [expletive]. We don’t need you. We won without you. Leave.”
This is where things get interesting though. Durant’s former Thunder teammate and good friend, Kendrick Perkins, said, “KD never bounced back from the Draymond situation. And I think the Warriors had a chance to sign KD, but when that situation occurred — and the Warriors tried to clean it up by suspending Draymond. But they suspended Draymond, and then about two months later, the owner comes back out and says that he wants Draymond there for life, right? He wants him there for life.”
Later Perkins said, “It’s hard to say they took [KD] for granted, but I think he felt like it was best for him to leave. And it’s hard to overcome that. There were some harsh words.”
And then Durant injured his calf in the playoffs in Game 5 against the Houston Rockets in the Western Conference Semifinals that would cause him to be out until four games into the NBA Finals.
Steph Curry was magnanimous in his absence. In fact; Curry, Thompson and Green played like the 2016 73-9 team of old – the one without Kevin Durant. It was like watching the old band get back together again. It was marvelous.
They even swept the Portland Trailblazers in the WCF and Curry averaged nearly 37 points a game in that series. Fans were thrilled to see MVP Curry again, which caused people to wonder if they really needed Durant at all anymore. And you better believe Durant heard the chatter. There’s no way the sensitive superstar athlete who created burner accounts so he could defend himself on Twitter didn’t hear that rhetoric.
But it turns out they did need him because the Toronto Raptors finished off the Warriors 4-1 in the NBA Finals.
Then Durant left and allegedly felt he “wasn’t appreciated” enough by the fans. That Curry returning to Curry-form chatter got to him. So instead of being a bigger man and try to work through their differences, Durant left because of a grudge and his undeniable over-sensitivity over a fan base who did nothing but embrace his presence.
That’s exhibit B of his childish behavior.
Finally, it wasn’t just the players and fans that Durant had a problem with. He allegedly wasn’t too fond of head coach Steve Kerr as well.
Stephen A. Smith said, “Kevin Durant did not have the greatest relationship with Steve Kerr. He wasn’t too fond of Steve Kerr at all. I don’t know the particulars, but I do know that. KD was not feeling Steve Kerr. At all.”
It’s okay to not get along with someone. It happens in every work environment across America. It’s normal.
But if you have a problem with the players, the fans and the head coach, chances are it’s not them, it’s you.
That’s exhibit C of his childish behavior.
But that’s who Kevin Durant has become. He’s a child. Now he’s the Nets problem.
