Days before the All-Star Break earlier this month, Kevin Durant took aim at what he felt to be bias aimed at American-born basketball players not trying during the NBA All-Star Game.
“You should ask the Europeans and the World team if they’re going to compete,” Durant said. “If you look at Luka Doncic and Nikola Jokic now, let’s go back and look at what they do in the All-Star Game. Is that competition? So, we haven’t questioned what they’ve been doing. But we’re going to question the old heads, and the Americans.”
The comments sparked a robust conversation, one that was the pretext to both American teams beating Team World in the new All-Star game format. Now, he's continuing his crusade against rhetoric he deems unfair to American players and a subtext that isn't often talked about in an ESPN report about him playing in the 2028 Olympics.
“It's a lot of bulls— with that. I can read between the lines on that. It's a shot at Black Americans. We're controlling the sport. They're tired of us controlling the sport.
He added, “‘France is coming for you.' Really? We smacked them boys.”
Durant is correct, as the 2024 edition of Team USA at the Olympics beat a French national team led by Victor Wembanyama. Team USA has won Gold every summer Olympics since the shocking Bronze medal finish in the 2004 Olympics.
Durant also said that he wasn't ruling out playing in the LA Olympics in the Summer of 2028, insenuating that the media painted a narrative that he and Steph Curry wouldn't put their hat in the ring.
“You guys, the media, have projected that,” Durant told ESPN recently. “That narrative, where did the last dance thing come from? I didn't say I wasn't playing. LeBron said he wasn't. You didn't hear that from me or Steph.”
