A couple of days ago, Kevin Durant got into it with a fan on Twitter but used a third-person voice that made it look like he was on another, separate account where his identity was protected. He didn’t hold back going at one of the many fans who have come at him saying he took an easy path. It was a poor choice by Durant.
Tuesday at a Tech Crunch event, he owned up to it, saying what he did was “childish.. idiotic.”
KD went further speaking to Sam Amick of the USA Today after the event.“I played a little too much, and that (expletive) really hurt me,” Durant... told USA TODAY Sports afterward. “To know that I affected Billy Donovan and the Thunder – like I love those people and I don’t never (want to hurt them).
“That was just me being a total (expletive) idiot. I own up to it. I want to move on from it. It probably hit me probably harder than what everybody (thought). Everybody else was telling me to relax, to snap out of it, but I was really, really upset with myself more than anything. It’s not the fact that people were talking about me, because I deserve that, but I’m just more upset with myself that I let myself go that far, you know what I was saying? It was a joke to me at first. I was doing it all summer, and it went too deep. I went too hard… I haven’t slept in two days, two nights. I haven’t ate. It’s crazy, because I feel so (expletive) pissed at myself and I’m mad that I brought someone into it.”
Durant went on to say he tries to treat the NBA like a playground game, so he can still feel the joy of the sport. Interacting with fans online is just another form of trash talk, he said, then added he let it go too far and said things he regrets.
Durant heard a lot of trash talk coming his way after he left Oklahoma City. Not quite LeBron James leaving Cleveland levels, but plenty. The mature thing to do might be to let this go, because he’s got a ring now. Maybe post a picture of him with the Larry O’Brien trophy and say “for the haters:" and leave it at that. In an NBA world where championships impact legacy (too much, I would argue) he has one now. He will get more in the next few years. He won. So don’t sweat the small stuff.
But that’s not what Durant did. Now he’s going to hear about it for a long time. No matter how much he apologizes, says how bad he feels, and explains himself.