Kevin Durant makes his feelings clear on NBA's 'hired assassins' in comparison with Kawhi Leonard

Aside from being one of the top stars of his generation, Kevin Durant is most known for his constant engagement with fans online. As he soaks in the downtime of the offseason, he chimed in on a comparison to another one of the NBA's star forwards.

On Friday, Durant had a near-endless back-and-forth with fans after being accused of costing LeBron James a dynasty. In the midst of the thread, KD referred to himself as a mercenary regarding his constant changing of teams.

Upon making this remark, one fan pivoted to a different debate. When it comes to hired talent, Kawhi Leonard's brief stint with the Toronto Raptors was dubbed the best example.

Kevin Durant ended up replying to the post, agreeing with the fan's assessment. The former MVP then touched more about how every play in the NBA could be viewed as a "hired assassin."

"I agree, this isn’t a competition. Point is, the nba is full of hired assassins, we all get handpicked from billions of people from different regions around the world to come represent 30 franchises for a handsome fee. The true definition of hired assassins"

Aside from Leonard's time in Toronto, Kevin Durant's run with the Golden State Warriors is another good example of a franchise maximizing a window of hired talent to secure a title.

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Kevin Durant downplays notion that joining Warriors altered the NBA landscape

Almost a decade since the decision, joining the Warriors remains as the key thing Kevin Durant has to hear about from critics. In his latest social media onslaught, he downplayed the idea of the move having a drastic impact on the league.

In Friday's ongoing thread, fans continued to attack KD for his decision to join the Warriors. One person went on a small rant about the league has not been as competitive since he joined forces with Steph Curry in 2016. Durant proceeded to respond to this remark, essentially saying that sometimes things happen in life that you just can't avoid.

"Sometimes shit is just so good that it’ll tilt some shit….its life, gotta roll with the punches lil one"

In the short term, Kevin Durant going to Golden State certainly hurt the competitive aspect of the NBA. No team had the firepower to match up with them, resulting in the Warriors having a vice grip of the league for nearly three years. This group didn't end up being taken down until they were ravaged with injuries in the 2019 finals.

Since then, it's hard to argue that the NBA hasn't been as competitive as it's ever been. The KD Warriors are the last team to repeat as champions, giving the league a great amount of parity in the last half-decade.