Kevin Durant typically has no filter when interacting with fans online. But this time, while answering fan questions on X, Durant inadvertently ended up taking a shot at Stephen Curry.
When a fan asked him why he thinks Warriors fans hate him, he seemingly pointed at Curry’s fans.
“Them finals MVPs, they will never recover,” said Durant in response.
While some fans agreed that this seemed like a subtle dig at Curry, most fans believed that it’s not the entire Warriors fanbase but just a bunch of Curry loyalists who believe Durant stole the Finals MVP Award from him.
“Weird sneak diss on Curry, especially considering you know he was the real FMVP in 2015 and 2018.”
“Sneak dissing curry is crazy.”
“No knocking to you KD, but Steph was better in 3/4 games in 2018. You know that. You were still great, but Steph was better.”
“No TRUE Warrior fans hate or dislike you. All the casual Steph fans think you “stole” FMVPS from Steph, which isn’t the case; both of y’all were absolutely elite in each finals run. One wasn’t much better than the other. You helped bring 2 chips to the bay. All real fans understand how great you were for us and are currently. Appreciate it don’t hate on it.”
“All I know is you won’t see Curry going so low like this.”
One of the biggest debates for Stephen Curry’s legacy had been that until 2022, he hadn’t won a Finals MVP award despite winning three NBA championships before that. In 2015, Andre Iguodala received the Finals MVP award instead of Curry, and in 2017 and 2018, Kevin Durant was awarded the Finals MVP, and not Curry.
Therefore, Durant seems to believe that since he won two Finals MVPs over Curry, loyal Warriors fans who love Curry started criticizing Durant. This planted the seed that developed into Warriors fans disliking Durant, despite him winning two titles with them.
Let’s take a look at Durant and Curry’s performance in 2017 and 2018 to see if Durant was really better than Curry in those two seasons’ Finals runs against the Cavaliers.
In the 2017 NBA Finals, Durant averaged 35.2 points, 8.2 rebounds, and 5.4 assists in five games played. He shot 55.6% from the floor and 47.4% from beyond the three-point line. In the same year, Curry averaged 26.8 points, 9.4 assists, and 8.0 rebounds while shooting 44% from the field and 38.8% from beyond the arc.
In the 2018 NBA Finals, Durant averaged 28.8 points, 10.8 rebounds, and 7.5 assists as the Warriors swept the Cavaliers. He shot 52.6% from the field and 40.9% from beyond the three-point arc. Meanwhile, Curry averaged 27.5 points, 6.8 assists, and 6.0 rebounds while shooting 40.2% from the field and 41.5% from beyond the three-point line.
In both seasons, it is evidently clear that Durant contributed a lot more than Curry in almost every aspect and hence was justified in being awarded the two Finals MVP awards. However, since Curry ended up not winning the Finals MVP award in four consecutive visits to the NBA Finals from 2015 to 2018, his fans unfairly blamed Kevin Durant for stealing the award from him.
Curry and Durant have a lot of mutual respect, but his fans evidently drove Durant out of the Warriors.
According to NBA Insider Marc Spears, the Warriors fans regularly gave Curry MVP chants, and that did not sit right with Durant until very late with the Warriors. Spears hinted that these chants made Durant feel like Warriors fans did not fully embrace him.
If Warriors fans did not criticize Durant as much as they did, maybe Durant could have made a return to the Warriors now instead of joining the Rockets? The world of possibilities and “what-ifs” here is endless.
