Kevin Durant likes to needle people a little, to stir the pot.
Durant does care what people think about him, although his skin has gotten thicker over the years.
Nothing is bad or wrong about either of those things.
We bring all that up because last week Durant pretty much owned C.J. McCollum on McCollum’s “Pull Up” podcast when the two started talking about Durant and now DeMarcus Cousins going to the Warriors. That all spilled over to Twitter, with the two taking some shots at each other (and McCollum using a terrible gang-fight analogy).
Of course, at the USA Basketball mini-camp in Las Vegas a reporter brought up the back-and-forth to Durant, who was in a needling mood (hat tip Anthony Slater of The Athletic).
Funny Kevin Durant back-and-forth with a reporter on the CJ McCollum twitter tiff yesterday pic.twitter.com/kgNPLVSYro
— Anthony Slater (@anthonyVslater) July 26, 2018
From there, Durant said that people overplay his sensitivity, and that he and McCollum don’t actually have a beef.
Kevin Durant: "I know you think I'm sensitive, but I'm just somebody who is tired of holding shit in."
— Anthony Slater (@anthonyVslater) July 26, 2018
KD pressed further on the McCollum stuff: "This is not East coast, West coast beef. Bro, CJ...I will go have some wine with him in New York when he get back from China and take a picture if you all don't believe me."
— Anthony Slater (@anthonyVslater) July 26, 2018
It’s the offseason, little stuff gets blown up without those pesky games to divert our attention. Fans (and media, sometimes) like to imagine that there are real beefs and deep-seeded hatred between NBA players and rivals, when the reality is they generally all get along. They hang with each other and work out together in the off-season, they go to dinner/clubs together during the season. Players don’t agree on everything — plenty think KD took the easy road to a ring — but it’s a business and it stops as they walk off the court. There are exceptions, but not many.
I doubt this is one of them.
So Durant and McCollum are probably good.