'%20x='0'%20y='0'%20height='100%25'%20width='100%25'%20%0A%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20xlink%3Ahref='data:image/jpg;base64,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'%3E%3C/image%3E%3C/svg%3E)
For any NBA player, the offseason after winning their first championship has got to be the best summer of their career/life. For Kevin Durant, it was a lot more than that. He finally got the monkey off his back when he clinched his first championship in the Golden State Warriors' comfortable 4-1 win over the Cleveland Cavaliers in the 2017 Finals.
More importantly, Durant wasn't riding his teammates to his first chip. He was their leader, the team's biggest contributor, sometimes on both ends of the floor. Over the five-game series, he averaged 35.2 points, 8.2 rebounds, 5.4 assists and 1.6 blocks on 55.6% shooting from the field in 39.7 minutes. The outstanding numbers earned him his career's first Finals MVP trophy.
Durant had silenced his haters and proved his haters wrong. All he had to do now was sit back, lay low and spend the summer completing his various off-court business ventures. However, things haven't gone according to plan with the 2014 league MVP making the news for all the wrong reasons.
#5 Comments on India
In the last few days of July, Durant made the long flight down to India for three days, joining the list of past superstars like Kevin Garnett, Dwight Howard and Chris Bosh to have made the long trip. A fan of the sport himself, Durant promoted the sport of basketball in the country by actively participating in practice sessions with the kids at newly opened NBA Academy and teaching drills to a record-breaking crowd at a Jr. NBA event.
Ten days after the trip, in an exclusive interview with the Athletic's Anthony Slater, Durant spoke his mind about everything - the 2017 Finals, his decision to take a pay-cut, his India trip and much more. While most of it went on as any other usual interview, his answers on the questions regarding India not only stood out but made a lot of noise.
The noise might have been only on this side of the Pacific but it did lead to an apology from the 8-time All-Star within 24 hours of the interview.
It's a pity his initial answers in the interview weren't as well worded as his apology.
#4 Firing back at haters on shoe soles
It goes without saying that players do have a say in what goes into their signature sneakers with their respective brands. So there's no doubt about the fact that Durant either suggested this or gave it this suggestion a go-ahead.
To be honest, there was no reason for this. He had vindicated himself and gained redemption when the Larry O'Brien trophy was raised. He overcame all the criticism that came his way last summer by letting his game do the talking.
Instead of taking the high ground, Durant felt the need to prove himself and remind everybody of his greatness when the NBA universe was already talking about how the Warriors had won the offseason because he took a pay cut.
#3 " Nobody wants to play in Under Armours, I'm sorry."
Maybe it was all meant to be light-hearted and it was just a joke between him and teammate Stephen Curry. On a podcast with Bill Simmons in late August, Durant when asked why the University of Maryland has failed to lure local prospects.
A Maryland native himself, Durant cited the reason to be the school's apparel deal with Under Armour as the main reason.
“I think a lot of kids, to be honest, they don’t choose Maryland unless they play in like an Under Armour system coming up,” Durant said to Simmons. “Shoe companies have a real big influence on where these kids go. Nobody wants to play in Under Armours, I’m sorry. The top kids don’t because they all play Nike.”
Durant is among Nike's biggest athletes but what's the need to spark a debate between the two sneaker brands when Stephen Curry hadn't thought of the same while pitching him to join the team in 2016.
Curry, a thorough professional, dealt with the controversy well. Speaking with Charlotte Observer's Scott Fowler, Curry said he had spoken to Durant and cleared the air regarding the issue and that the matter wasn't something that would tear the locker room.
#2 Fake Twitter accounts?
Does Kevin Durant have multiple fake Twitter accounts? Does he use them to defend himself against heckling fans? A lot of such questions have come up over the past week when a couple of screenshots, where he was having a conversation with Twitter users, went viral.
What's interesting about his replies are that they are in third-person. His replies were later deleted but these screenshots are a telling story. Everybody - the Warriors and their fans, the Oklahoma City Thunder and their fans, and even he himself - were healing from his decision last year and his Twitter outburst (now non-existent) doesn't help.
At a TechCrunch summit a couple of days later, Durant owned up and apologized for mentioning his former head coach and his former organization in his tweets. Neither he nor the interviewer spoke or discussed further regarding the subject of the tweets or the reason for their third-voice tone but that doesn't undo what happened.
The tweets beg the question: Is that really what he cites as the reason for his departure from OKC?
#1 Not the Golden State way of functioning
Since the new ownership took over, the Golden State Warriors have been one of the most professional franchises in the league. To their credit, they maintained that even once they received the detailed attention because of their success. They've always tried to, and urged their players too, to stay out of the news for the wrong reasons.
The franchise's culture has been to work together and just win. And although Durant hasn't done anything to threaten that, he has been in the news almost all through the summer for reasons that even he has admitted to regretting or claimed that he was taken out of context - the India trip comments and the Twitter fiasco.
The Warriors media day is this Friday (local time) and Durant surely will have a lot of questions to answer at the presser.
Guess the Lakers players!
