Durant tweets
Considering the effusiveness with which Durant praised the Thunder and how the franchise was run when he claimed the MVP award in 2014, his tweets last Sunday expectedly generated shock. It also didn’t help that he posted them in the third person, as if h
Needless to say, the Thunder weren’t fans of Kevin Durant’s twin tweets that shook pro hoops circles over the weekend. By all accounts, they were shaken, and rightly so. Since they set up shop in Oklahoma City in 2008 and up until he chose to bolt to the Warriors last year, they recognized his status as their best player and afforded him all the privileges that came with it. They consulted him on personnel moves, paid respects to him both officially and away from prying eyes, and tied their future to his. And even when he saw fit to seek greener pastures, they had nothing but kind words to say to him. His throwing them under the bus — and in social media to boot — was, therefore, hard to take. Yet, for all their hurt and disappointment, they have remained a class act, opting not to fight fire with fire, but with silence in public and acceptance in private.
Except, that is, for Enes Kanter. Durant followers and haters know him well. When the one-time National Basketball Association Most Valuable Player left in July 2016, he was the most vocal critic. And when the Thunder hosted their former top dog in November, he couldn’t help but jaw at his former teammate from the bench. So it was no surprise to find him firing back on Twitter. “I don’t care what anyone says. Oklahoma City Thunder is the best and most professional organization in the NBA and got the craziest fans,” he posted. “We win — we lose but the most important thing we stick together because we are one. And those cats, I call them FAMILY.” Not coincidentally, it was a tweet liked by 12,000 followers, among them reigning MVP Russell Westbrook.
Considering the effusiveness with which Durant praised the Thunder and how the franchise was run when he claimed the MVP award in 2014, his tweets last Sunday expectedly generated shock. It also didn’t help that he posted them in the third person, as if he meant to use an alternate account but forgot to do so in his haste. Was he so insecure as to be overwhelmed by the need to respond to a backhanded compliment? And were his words truly reflective of his sentiments, especially since he seemed to want followers to believe they weren’t his? Even the Modern Luxury article that just came out (and that he promoted) indicated a fragile and conflicted psyche.
Frankly, no quarter emerges from Durant’s latest brush with notoriety unscathed. Not the Thunder, and not the NBA, and certainly not him. Which is why he wants nothing more than for the issue to die down, and fast, and his immediate mea culpa makes for a good first step. And because everything put out in the Web is immortalized, the sooner he stops feeding the trolls, the easier it will be for him to move on.