Kevin Durant yells at imaginary critics in post-practice workout
Warriors star seems stressed about scrutiny on his team after opening-night blowout loss.
By
Matt Moore
•
3 min read
One of the big questions going into this season with the Golden State Warriors was how Kevin Durant would adapt to being a villain. He's been the lovable small-town hero his entire career, and now threw aside the state of Oklahoma and bolted to go "fit in" with the big, shiny, juggernaut. That means more scrutiny, more criticism, more discussion of him.
Durant, apparently, is using it as motivation. He stayed late after practice, in front of reporters, on Thursday, working up a sweat and knocking down buckets while yelling about his critics. From ESPN:
"They say I ain't hungry! I'm out here!"
Durant was working to bounce back from his team's 29-point loss to the San Antonio Spurs on Tuesday night. The former MVP stayed late after practice Thursday in preparation for Friday night's game against the Pelicans, shooting between one-on-one drills with Warriors assistant coach Chris DeMarco.
Shooting his last shots, Durant said, "They told me I ain't have no drive! I'm out here. They called me a coward! Putting in work."
If you're a Golden State fan, it's an awesome image of a player striving to be great in the face of incredible criticism.
If you're pretty much anyone else, it's a weird thing for a superstar to do after one game. It's also largely imaginary. No one's ever said Durant doesn't have drive or isn't hungry. There was talk of him being a "coward" after his decision, however, and that was always a false characterization based on a career decision, even if that choice did have impacts on how we view him as a basketball player.
But then, this is also very normal. Players always use this kind of motivation, and will often do the same thing, yelling about critics. There have been social media videos of John Wall and LeBron James talking in the same manner. It's just notable that we're just one game in and Durant is already stressing about critics.
Then there's this:
"It's not that I read it -- it's just in the air," he said. "You know it's just in the atmosphere and people tell you and you hear about it. You guys ask me questions about it all the time, so obviously I know, but I'm not losing sleep on it. It's just wood on that fire."
On the media response to Golden State's big debut loss, Durant said:
"Obviously you hear everything. Season's over, the team is worst team in the league, you thought it was going to be easy. It's one game. I thought, after losing in the playoffs by 30 or beating someone by 30 in Game 1 of the playoffs and you say it's only one game.
"Durant's closing statement, said with laughter as he left: "It's one game of 82 and you f---ing guys make me feel like the world's going to end."
So, just to review, Durant doesn't read or watch any of the sports media, but he's still finely in tune with the criticism being lobbed at him about his decision and the Warriors' opening night face plant vs. the Spurs. Somehow.
Durant has long had a bizarre frustration with the media. In general, he has been praised for both his game and his character, but would criticize the media for perceived slights or for even presuming to know anything about the game. Maybe that's fair, but the defensiveness always seemed odd and random.
The overall picture that's presented here is a Durant that seems stressed out by his situation. Perhaps that's inaccurate and he really is just amused by any and all media discussion. But one game in, Durant seems to be over all of the conversation that he had to know full well his decision to join Golden State would create, especially if they then lost their opener, at home, by 29 points.
The Warriors try and get back on track Friday vs. the Pelicans in New Orleans.
