Following a horrendous showing in the NBA playoffs, Kevin Durant is set to endure a long and noisy summer… and he has every intention of fighting back.
Among his latest opponents? The ‘Inside the NBA’ crew and, specifically, Charles Barkley, who has already made a big scene of calling him out on television.
“Please don’t tell me you’re a great, great player and you’re averaging 20,” said Chuck. “I don’t think I ever played in the playoffs and averaged 20. I don’t wanna bad mouth a dude but you guys always talk about Championship stuff. I try to tell y’all, all these bus riders, they don’t mean nothing to me. If you ain’t driving the bus, don’t walk around talking about you a Champion. If you’re riding the bus, I don’t wanna hear it. All these guys walking around with Championship rings, y’all bus riders. When you the bus driver and you get all that pressure when you have to play well or you’re gonna get the blame, that’s a different animal.”
It turns out that Durant was made aware of the scathing quote and actually fired back once already in an Instagram story.
Hours later, KD would add to the situation by responding to a Tweet on the subject by Rob Perez.
it’s ok to defend yourself, but the mistake KD made was doing this in the morning and giving Inside time to prepare. they have an army of producers experienced in the art of pettiness. theyre going to be in photoshop all day. those stage directors probably setting up for a band.
— Rob Perez (@WorldWideWob) April 26, 2022
An army of producers against the god. Just Another Tuesday https://t.co/yxHlYT8Efl
— Kevin Durant (@KDTrey5) April 26, 2022
Indeed, Durant finds himself in these types of battles all the time and, usually, he comes out of them looking pretty good.
In this case, after his postseason performance fans just aren’t as supportive.
I don’t get why you guys are so mad at what I call myself. It’s about good affirmations right? Be happy for me https://t.co/DqPhwbd8Gs
— Kevin Durant (@KDTrey5) April 26, 2022
The only thing more questionable than KD’s Twitter activity is his basketball future. Ben Simmons has yet to play since 2021, Kyrie Irving is as undependable as a teammate can be, and Durant himself is going to be 34 in September.
It’s a murky situation all around for the 2x Champion and as much as he fights to defend his honor on Twitter, the only way to shut the haters up will be to make amends in the playoffs next season.
We will see if he’s up for the task.
