Houston Rockets superstar Kevin Durant is back to feuding with fans on X, and one of them in particular drew his ire. When a user with the handle “@ssyriek” claimed that no one respects Durant and called him a cupcake, he had an interesting response.
“This lack of respect is a internet thing. In real life yall boys scary. Would never voice your disrespect to anyone, just a lot of finger movin..enjoy this outlet brother.”
Social media was meant to bring fans closer to their favorite celebrities, but it has now become an avenue where you disrespect someone without worrying about the consequences. As Durant stated, most people wouldn’t have the courage to say the things they say online to someone’s face.
When the fan claimed he wasn’t disrespecting Durant but just holding him accountable for lying to Phoenix Suns fans and the media, he fired another shot.
“Nobody has ever seen you. You live online. Bots don’t get respect in the real world. Online though, won’t lie, you learned to manipulate people into thinking you’re actually somebody when your phone dies. Good s***.”
That was brutal. Durant later claimed that he had never been disrespected by a fan in real life. We actually got to see one instance in public in 2024, but it also served to prove the 15-time All-Star’s point.
As Durant walked onto the court before a game against the Dallas Mavericks, a couple of fans called him a b***h. He immediately turned around to confront them, and their demeanor completely changed. One of them wanted to shake hands as they knew they had made a mistake by disrespecting him to his face.
All that bravado just vanished in an instant. Durant spoke about the incident after the game.
“It wasn’t that big of a deal. It’s like, they don’t look at us as humans sometimes. So when you get a chance to let a person know how you feel real quick, then they’ll backtrack. See, we’re animals, we’re circus acts, we’re entertainers to them instead of real people.”
The fans were asked by security to leave the arena after that incident, but Durant made it clear that wasn’t needed. He took the high road, and not many would have.
While Durant has his flaws, he gets way too much hate online. Yes, he has switched teams a few times by now and has left on bad terms, but he hasn’t really been involved in any serious off-court controversies.
That said, Durant does attract all that negativity to himself by engaging with the haters. It seems like something he should avoid doing, but he once spoke about why he beefs with fans on social media.
“The whole point of having social media is to interact with people, right? So, you follow me for a chance to maybe interact with me,” Durant said. “So, it depends on how I feel, I’m gonna interact, and if you troll, I’mma troll back. If you show love, I will show love back. Also, I try to reciprocate energy as much as possible to give people more of an in-depth experience of who I am.”
Durant doesn’t really engage too much with the fans who show him love, though. The 36-year-old seems to relish engaging in fights. Durant even admitted once that hate drives him and that too much love can kill you.
