Since Kevin Durant made the decision to join the Golden State Warriors last summer, Steven A. Smith has been one of his biggest critics.

During an appearance on ESPN's First Take last week Durant's mother, Wanda Durant, fired away at Smith's strong comments toward her son pointing out that he made a similar decision by joining ESPN years ago.

“I thought [what he said] was quite harsh. It’s like, ‘who are you, Stephen A., to come at my boy like that?’ When he came to ESPN? Was that a weak move for him? He joined some more heavy hitters, right? To up his career, right? To do what was best for him. That’s what he did, right? No one called him weak for that. So why call me son weak for doing the same thing he did?”

It didn't take long for this get back around to Smith, who issued a thorough response back to Wanda following his return to the show after a one-week absence due to his mother's passing.

“As much as she loves her baby boy, with all due respect to Mrs. Durant, the wonderful, lovely Mrs. Durant, you are wrong. First of all I never once said Kevin Durant was weak, I said his move to Golden State was weak, so let’s be clear. That’s not calling him weak. A matter of fact, I repeatedly called him a superstar one of the top two players in the world, a great basketball ambassador, and incredible role model.

Now, because I simply said that you electing to go to the team that beat you, who happens to be 73-9 or just finished a 73-9 season, with three All-Stars, with the greatest shooting backcourt in the history of basketball, with a reigning two-time league MVP and you are the No. 2 player on the planet Earth in my eyes. If that’s being too cruel to your son, I respectfully disagree. It's not. It happens to be factual.

She also brought up the move to ESPN and how that was weak. With all due respect, it might have been weaker for ESPN to ever let me go in the first place, ’cause I should have still been here, alright? So let’s call it what it is. I did not go to a new home, I came back to a home where I belonged all along. So let’s just call it what it is, that’s No. 2.

No. 3: ESPN never beat me! So what I’m trying to say is: Oklahoma City lost to Golden State. If ESPN was ‘the enemy’ and I was knocking at the door literally about to push the champions off of their cliff and I failed, I damn sure wouldn’t have joined them.

Smith has only further ingrained himself in his stance holding pat that Durant made the weak decision to join the team that beat him just a few months prior in the playoffs. It also didn't help that the Warriors were coming off a historic season where they won 73 games in the regular season.

All of this only made it a frowned upon move by many more beyond just Smith. Durant has heard it all from the critics over the last several months, which could all essentially be silenced by winning an NBA title in his first year with the team.

The Warriors have become an even bigger juggernaut that is now on the brink of capturing the championship and could look to add more down the road if their core players stay in place. Regardless of Durant says at this point, there are always going to be critics like Smith that will point to that argument.