Durant cannot have it both ways
After all this time, Kevin Durant still does not get it.
One heck of a basketball player. Two-time NBA champion. And no matter what happens from this moment forward, Durant will be one of the most unique and explosive scorers in league history.
But Durant also took his talents to the best regularseason team in NBA history. He intentionally joined a Golden State squad that already had Stephen Curry, Klay Thompson, Draymond Green and Andre Iguodala. He knew (or should have known) everything he was buying into the second he exchanged Oklahoma City for the greatest NBA dynasty since Michael Jordan’s Bulls.
Drama. Rumors. Endless “inside” information and a never-ending national microscope.
But Durant publicly whines, complains and puts on his bad-guy routine more than ever. Despite being the back-toback NBA Finals MVP. Despite making $30 million a year (not including
endorsements). Despite the indisputable fact that the media game has been going on longer than Durant has been alive and the moment he chose the superteam Warriors, he signed up for all of this.
“I have nothing to do with the Knicks,” said Durant as he blasted the media Wednesday, after Golden State blasted San Antonio 141-102 and improved to a Western Conference-best 38-15. “I don’t know who traded Kristaps Porzingis. They got nothing to do with me. I’m trying to play basketball. Y’all come in here every day, ask me about free agency, ask my teammates, my coaches. You rile up the fans about it. Let us play basketball. That’s all I’m saying. And now when I don’t want to talk to y’all, it’s a problem with me.
“Come on, man. Grow up. Grow up. Yeah, you — grow up. Come on, bro. I come here and go to work every day. I don’t cause no problems. I play the right way, or I try to play the right way. I try to be the best player I can be every possession. What’s the problem? What am I doing to y’all?”
Grow up?
Really?
Players play the media game and benefit, more than anyone, from free agency. Player agents, front-office executives and hangers-on drive the circus hourly, daily, weekly and annually. Of course, the media keeps igniting it all, promoting clicks, ratings and its own self-serving interest.
Why does ESPN devote so much television, radio and internet time to Anthony Davis, LeBron James, Durant, etc.? Because ESPN has a massive TV contract with the NBA.
The NFL and NBA reign supreme on the four-letter word. MLB and the NHL are increasingly pushed aside. It’s not a coincidence.
But what does Durant really think is going to happen? That he can make all the dialogue — millions of tweets, stories, socialmedia posts, conversations, phone calls, texts, broadcasts, speculative theories — go away, just by childishly chastising the world that helps create his millions?
“I just don’t trust none of y’all,” Durant said. “Every time I say something it’s getting twisted up and thrown out and in so many different publications, trying to tear me down with my words that I say. So when I don’t say nothing, it’s a problem. I just want to play ball. I want to go to the gym and go home. That’s all. Is that a problem? All right then.”
The NBA loves the drama and is buoyed by the intrigue.
Small-market teams keep losing their superstars. About 10 players partly control the futures of 30 franchises. James held his own ESPN-televised special. Everyone from Dwight Howard and Carmelo Anthony to LaMarcus Aldridge and Paul George have helped create a free-agency circus that shows no signs of stopping.
No one made Davis announce a year ahead of time that he was leaving New Orleans and has his heart set on joining James in Los Angeles. All the drama that has followed is fair game.
Durant has everything he ever wanted.
But one of the best players in NBA history keeps acting like he hates the world he helped create.