Even though Draymond Green has neither retired nor changed his trash talking ways, one other person was a shoo-in for the award for loud mouth of the offseason. That honor belongs solely to Kevin Durant. He’s commented on everything from politics to under amour and back. Every month there was a new comment from Durant on some new topic. However, none were more frequent than his responses to people on his decision. This time, he’s using his shoes to respond by writing things like “choked,” “bandwagon,” “superteam,” and “soft” on the insoles with his stats and accolades written over them in yellow to “drown out these criticisms.”
Ever since Durant signed with the Golden State Warriors in the 2016 off-season he’s been under heavy fire from fans; they have hurdled insults through twitter, Instagram, and other media. He’s been criticized a lot for his decision, but he’s been determined to respond to all his critics to prove to them he made the right decision. This is hypocritical of him because in 2010 Durant himself said, “now everybody wanna play for the Heat and the Lakers? Let’s go back to being competitive and going at these peoples!”
What made this decision all the more shocking was the fact that in the 2016 playoffs, Durant and his former teammate, Russell Westbrook, now MVP of the league, had the 73 win team down 3-1 in the Western Conference Finals. This would’ve been one of the biggest upsets in NBA history. History would write a different story however, as Durant would choke in game 6 by shooting 10-31 which lead to Oklahoma City losing the same 3-1 lead the Warriors were mocked for all summer.
The truth is they both choked away leads, but the Warriors were already champions and Durant was still trying to become one. So when he jumped on the bandwagon, it was only natural that people responded to it negatively, as the warriors were already a superteam so there was no need for Durant.
The 16-17 season largely proved that the Warriors improved as they ended with a record of 67-15, winning by an average of 11.6 points. They nearly swept the playoffs winning all but one game. Durant finally won his ring, although his battle to validate it hadn’t stopped. He’s taken to Twitter many times and is now using his shoes to show his “haters” he doesn’t care what they say, but the more he responds the more he shows that he does. The reason he probably cares so much is because he knows the criticisms are true, so he tries to drown them out. This is why no matter how many “haters” he shuts down on Twitter or “how hard he trolls his attackers,” they’ll always be right. He did choke away a 3-1 lead, he did hop on the Warriors bandwagon, and he did make the softest move in NBA history. But the biggest reason he has so many “haters” is because some fans already looked at Durant as a champion even though he didn’t have a ring. He always performed, carried himself, and acted like one. Jock Ewing once said that “Any man can win when things go his way, it’s the man who overcomes adversity that is the true champion,” and in the face of adversity he chose to win by making everything go his way. So even though the record books say different, the phrase “true champion” will never describe Kevin Durant.
