It’s hard not to at least feel a little bad for Kevin Durant.
Sure he made his bed by choosing to leave the Warriors to team up with the league’s most unpredictable player, but KD seemed pretty down on Friday, when speaking about the Nets organization decision to suspend Kyrie Irving for his failure to apologize (he since has) for tweeting of a video that promotes antisemitic beliefs.
“I ain’t here to judge nobody or talk down on nobody for how they feel, their view or anything,” Durant said during Friday shootaround. “I just didn’t like anything that went on. I feel like it was all unnecessary. I felt like we could have just kept playing basketball and kept quiet as an organization. I just don’t like none of it.”
When asked if he agreed with the team’s decision to suspend Irving, Durant said, “I believe and trust in the organization to do what’s right.”
Apparently, some took Durant’s initial statement as a tacit endorsement of what Irving posted. Durant took to Twitter to make sure that wasn’t the case.
Durant, who during his time in the Bay Area repeatedly said all he wants to do is play basketball, lamented the fact that so much of the conversation surrounding the NBA has to do with things off the court. He stated that actually playing the game provides an opportunity to tune out.
“It’s just the way of the NBA now,” Durant said. “Media, there’s so many outlets now and stories hit pretty fast now. That’s where all the chaos is coming from. Everybody’s opinion, and everybody has an opinion on this situation, and we’re hearing it nonstop.
“But once the balls start bouncing and we get into practice, none of that stuff seeps into the gym, so that’s the cool part about being in the gym. But once you step off the court, everybody’s got the microphones out, microscopes, looking at you, asking you what you feel about it. So that’s been difficult, but the game is a constant for us.”
