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Brooklyn Nets star Kevin Durant has been very busy on social media this week, feuding with fans and even Draymond Green to an extent over his time with the Golden State Warriors. Durant was back for more action on Thursday, though this time he took aim at hot-take merchants such as Stephen A. Smith, Skip Bayless and Shannon Sharpe. Curry was involved once again in the discussion, but not in any negative sense.
Durant responded to a tweet put out by ESPN's First Take featuring SAS talking about how Curry has changed the game for the better while Michael Jordan changed it for the worse. Yes, really.
The Nets star was having none of it:
My theory is that guys like steve, skip and Shannon have changed the game for the worse. Playas like Stephen and Michael can only push the game forward. https://t.co/0Oc9J2HqxS
— Kevin Durant (@KDTrey5) June 2, 2022
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Smith's argument is that Jordan's individual greatness resulted in the NBA marketing individuals too much, which hurt the game. He insists he's not slandering MJ and that he's the GOAT.
While some of this may be true, this obviously isn't Jordan's fault, and MJ helped bring the popularity of basketball to new heights and made it more of a global game. You could blame the league's marketing to a degree, but the media and hot-take artists like Smith and others KD mentions also play into this. These debate shows and so much of NBA coverage is dominated by all-time rankings, legacy talk, rings culture and wild hot takes about players, which is something the Nets star has repeatedly shown his disdain for.
While this kind of NBA coverage has a place and will never go away, there's certainly room for improvement when it comes to talking about what's actually happening on the court and emphasizing team play while also celebrating individual stars instead of always trying to tear them down. Kevin Durant wants to see more of that and isn't afraid to make his opinions known on the matter.
