“People want to silence me for some reason” – Kevin Durant speaks up on 'sensitive' narrative around him
Kevin Durant hasn't played for the Golden State Warriors since the 2018-19 season. Regardless, the former MVP has continued to field significant criticism for leaving the OKC Thunder to join the Warriors in 2016.
At the time, the decision to join the very team that he and the OKC Thunder blew a 3-1 lead against sparked criticism reminiscent of LeBron James' move to Miami. To this day, fans in Oklahoma City have continued to boo Durant when he plays at Paycom Center.
Although he understands it to a certain extent, after recently receiving boos in Oklahoma City, he still feels as though fans use the controversial move against him. During a recent interview with Fox Sports, KD revealed that he feels like people want to silence him:
"You know what happened. Because I went to the Warriors. People still don't like that part of everything. People want to silence me for some reason. I mean, I can't pinpoint exactly why.
"But it's just like I've seen it, it's not just a ‘me’ thing, like, there are a lot of players amongst a lot of sports that interact with their people on Twitter, Instagram, socials, and I don't hear the 'sensitive' rep about them."
Of course, as Warriors coach Steve Kerr tried to impart to Kevin Durant so many years ago, great players have a way of blocking out noise.
Steve Kerr's attempt to change Kevin Durant's social media habits
During his time with the Golden State Warriors, Kevin Durant was reportedly a joy to coach. Despite that, the former MVP seemed incredibly focused on social media, particularly regarding the discourse surrounding his career.
As award-winning author Matt Sullivan revealed in 2021, Kerr took Durant out for drinks. There, he spoke about the ability great players have to silence outside noise, hoping it would get Durant to stop spending his time arguing on social media.
"He said, 'You could just see the strain on his face that third year on the Warriors. He was staring at that phone all the time.' So he can't get over this, he's out here having GOAT top 5 debates, trying to make sure he's in that conversation on Twitter.
"He says he's over it, but he's not. And I don't think he's really changed since the Bay."
Somewhat shockingly, Kevin Durant didn't deny the claims. He also defended himself and his Twitter usage, saying:
@naslabumwhen I don’t see a problem with me interacting with basketball fans, it should be encouraged…steve should’ve also said that I’m never late and I work through every rep in practice with game speed. That should be more interesting than what I do on Twitter.
As Durant said recently, he still has burner accounts that he uses. After being exposed for creating fake accounts that he would use to anonymously defend himself, KD deleted the burners.
After a while, he came to the conclusion that if he enjoys using them, then he should continue to do so.