The New York Knicks have finally ended their 27-year drought by making it to the 2026 NBA Finals, and one of their fans decided to take a shot at Houston Rockets superstar Kevin Durant afterward. The Knicks had famously attempted to sign Durant in 2019, and not only did he turn them down, but he also joined their crosstown rival, the Brooklyn Nets, instead.
Knicks fans still haven’t quite gotten over it. So, after the team swept the Cleveland Cavaliers in the Eastern Conference Finals, content creator Tubby took to Instagram to claim that he knew the good times were coming after Jalen Brunson was signed in July 2022. He shared a picture of himself with Brunson that he had posted back then, which also included a five-word message.
“F*** KD, we got [Brunson].”
Tubby also claimed that Durant hates seeing the Knicks become successful. With how terminally online the 16-time All-Star is, there was a very good chance he’d come across the post, and he did.
“Finally, y’all can release yourselves from my Yerna means,” Durant commented.
Durant throwing some shade at Knicks fans led to one of them calling him a team cancer that needs to retire.
“Bro KD, you can’t carry a team, and you’re a team cancer everywhere u go, just retire, bro,” a fan replied.
Durant, who was embroiled in a burner account scandal, made it clear he’s going nowhere.
“NO!!!!!” Durant stated.
Kevin Durant comments on content creator Tubby’s post after he posted “F*** KD we got Brunson” pic.twitter.com/FNU4XnN8gM
— 2Cool2Blog (@2Cool2Blog) May 29, 2026
All the hate he gets online drives Durant, but it might reach levels never seen before if the Knicks do win the championship this year. They’ll take on either the Oklahoma City Thunder or the San Antonio Spurs in the NBA Finals.
Now, a lot can change in seven years, but almost no one would have predicted in 2019 that the Knicks would be in the Finals in 2026. We had seen them have little to no success in the postseason after they lost to the Indiana Pacers in the 2000 Eastern Conference Finals.
From then to 2019, the Knicks had won one playoff series. They were seen as somewhat of a joke, and you wondered when the glory days would return.
Knicks fans would start getting their hopes up about a revival when the team was linked to Durant and Kyrie Irving in the 2019 offseason. They both ended up going to the Nets, and that was a dark day for their rivals.
The Knicks’ consolation prize was Julius Randle, whom they signed to a three-year, $63 million deal. To say that didn’t inspire confidence would be an understatement.
If you’d told someone back then that the Nets wouldn’t even get to the Conference Finals in the next seven years, while the Knicks would get to the NBA Finals, they’d have laughed in your face. It would have seemed unthinkable, but here we are.
The Knicks eventually became contenders after Brunson arrived in 2022, while the Nets have been in rebuild mode for a while now. They traded away both Durant and Irving in 2023 and are stuck at the bottom of the Eastern Conference.
Kevin Durant On Why He Turned Down The Knicks
It wasn’t just Knicks fans who wanted Durant on the team in 2019. His agent, Rich Kleiman, wanted him to go there, too. So why didn’t it happen? Well, Durant did address turning down the Knicks during a chat with Kleiman.
“At that time, they weren’t. The Knicks weren’t cool. But they are a cool brand…Like right now, they poppin…last few years. But before that..the brand was cool but…I was looking at the team,” said Durant. “And the team was not cool to play for. The team was not cool to watch…I might have embellished or lied a little bit about the brand, I might’ve thrown the brand in there too. But of course, the Knicks brand, like—living in New York made me truly realize how it’s the greatest city in the world…”
It’s hard to say how different Durant’s career would have been had he joined the Knicks. The 37-year-old has continued to operate at a very high level since leaving the Warriors in 2019, averaging 26.0 points, 5.5 rebounds, 4.8 assists, 0.8 steals, and 0.9 blocks per game for the Rockets in 2025-26, but has had very little success in the postseason.
Durant hasn’t even reached the Conference Finals in the 2020s. There seemingly have been tensions behind the scenes wherever he has gone, too, so his turning down the Knicks worked out for them after all.
