After spending the majority of a season in silence, taking incoming criticism from many-a-source after making a move to the Golden State Warriors, Kevin Durant followed his glory-filled championship aura by interacting with those who continually criticize him after vindicating himself with his first trophy.
Only weeks prior to the start of the season, Durant talked with ESPN's Rachel Nichols and explained his reasoning behind him thriving in back-and-forth banter with his critics.
“I was programmed to care about stuff that didn't matter,” Durant admitted. “So like, if somebody called me a cupcake, people raise you and say if somebody tells you something, calls you a bad name, you're supposed to get tough with them.”
“I know who I am, it didn't really matter to me — but you get programmed to listen to it, especially around the NBA, the business around the NBA, the media around it. It caused me to pay attention to stuff and focus on stuff that doesn't matter.”
The lanky high-scoring forward offered that once he recognized the pettiness in some of it, it made it easy to gain perspective and fire back knowing those things are rather inconsequential when it comes down to his real life goals.
“What really matters is playing ball, being happy playing ball, enjoying yourself, enjoying your teammates and being a good person and making as much money as I can for my family to live off of for the rest of my life,” said Durant. “That's when it became simple for me. That's what made that back-and-forth, it made it fun now. Because it feels like I'm having banter with somebody on the sidelines of a streetball game. That's how fun it was, so it's cool that I can interact with the fans in that way too.
Durant has notably been more active on Twitter since winning a championship, often up for debate about a myriad of things, ranging from hoop-related to politics. Most recently, the 2014 MVP sent a new pair of his sneakers to a Twitter fan.
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