Durant brushes off social-media gaffe
A day after social media was abuzz over news that he liked an Instagram comment criticizing former teammate Russell Westbrook, the Warriors’ Kevin Durant made one thing certain: He is ready to move forward.
“I know what it is nowadays,” Durant said after shootaround Tuesday. “I know what the truth is. It is what it is. I don’t want problems” with anybody.
Durant liked an Instagram post Monday that said Westbrook was the “problem” when the two played together in Oklahoma City. Asked about it later by ESPN’s Chris Haynes,
Durant explained that he accidentally liked the comment while scrolling through his timeline.
This wasn’t the first time Durant has been caught up in a social-media controversy.
In September, he responded twice — both times in the third person — to a tweet asking for “one legitimate reason for leaving (Oklahoma City) other than getting a championship.” The first response read, “He didn’t like the organization or playing for Billy Donovan. His roster wasn’t that good, it was just him and russ.” The second tweet made things worse: “Imagine taking russ off that
team, see how bad they were. Kd can’t win a championship with those cats.”
Durant denied using fake social-media accounts to defend himself, and blamed being groggy from a nap for sending the tweets. In the seven months since, his relationship with Westbrook seemingly has thawed.
Asked at All-Star weekend in February about his muchpublicized feud with Westbrook, Durant said: “I feel like I f— that up. … I feel like I just made it a thing when it shouldn’t have been. It’s cool to kind of get past that and appreciate these guys for who they are and what they do. It’s all love at the end of the day.”
Thinking of Popovich: Warriors head coach Steve Kerr opened his postgame news conference Tuesday by voicing support for Gregg Popovich, who missed the first-round series’ final three games to grieve the death of his wife, Erin.
“Your team reflected who you are tonight,” Kerr said. “They battled every step of the way.”