Kevin Durant calls Phil Jackson “disrespectful”

We reported yesterday how Phil Jackson has already started working the referees in the Lakers/Thunder series by doing his best Kevin Garnett imitation and complaining about all the calls Kevin Durant gets. You know, like the ones Kobe Bryant gets.

Kevin Durant told the Oklahoman he did not find this so funny.

“Because it’s taking away from what I do,” Durant said. “That’s a part of my game, getting to the free-throw line and being aggressive. If you say that I get superstar calls or I get babied by the refs, that’s just taking away from how I play. That’s disrespectful to me.

Durant gets those calls because he is aggressive, he is the guy with the ball and he attacks the rim. If he gets some superstar calls, that’s because he’s an emerging superstar.

Jackson’s plan was really two-fold. One was to plant a seed in the minds of referees. Usually playoff games are allowed to be a little more physical than a regular season game, but Jackson would like a lot more physical. He will put Ron Artest on Durant, and the more physical he can be the better.

The second part of it is the Lakers can be a whiny team -- players standing and complaining to referees about a no call rather than getting back on defense. Jackson wants his team to start playing through those calls.

Durant said Jackson’s tactics should not work.

“If the refs pay attention to that and change how they call things because of that, that’s terrible,” Durant said. “That’s terrible to the game of basketball and to us. If that happens, then (coach) Scotty (Brooks) could talk, too. Or any other coach could talk, too, just so the refs could switch everything up. But I doubt they do that.