After an inaugural season with the Warriors that could’ve hardly gone any better, Kevin Durant’s offseason has been rife with controversy. While it seems like winning NBA Finals MVP would be the ultimate retort to his haters, Durant has spent much of the summer clapping back at critics, creating a shoe featuring criticisms on the soles and trashing his former organization on what it seems like he thought was a secret Twitter account. He also found time to slam Under Armour, his teammate Stephen Curry’s sneaker brand.
Durant did apologize for his Twitter comments on Tuesday, and seemed to be seriously embarrassed by his actions.
“That was just me being a total (expletive) idiot, Durant said. “I own up to it. I want to move on from it. It probably hit me probably harder than what everybody (thought). Everybody else was telling me to relax, to snap out of it, but I was really, really upset with myself more than anything. It’s not the fact that people were talking about me, because I deserve that, but I’m just more upset with myself that I let myself go that far, you know what I was saying? It was a joke to me at first. I was doing it all summer, and it went too deep. I went too hard… I haven’t slept in two days, two nights. I haven’t ate. It’s crazy, because I feel so (expletive) pissed at myself and I’m mad that I brought someone into it.”
But what do his teammates and the Warriors organization think of all this? According to a report by Chris Mannix of Yahoo Sports, they are as baffled as everybody else.
“Many in Golden State, team officials and players alike, have taken note of Durant’s oddball offseason and are perplexed by it,” Mannix writes. “They see a bright future for Durant in Oakland, league and team sources told The Vertical, and are bewildered as to why he is still addressing his past.”
It seems that Durant’s Twitter incident earlier in the week may have been the tipping point, with the All-Star forward saying he’s going to cool it for a bit when it comes to responding to critics.
“I will scale back a little bit right now. Just focus on playing basketball,” Durant said on Tuesday. “I want to move on.”
Durant is likely looking forward to getting back on the court, something he’ll be able to do in two days when training camp begins.
