The Daily Observer London Desk: Reporter- John Furner
Phoenix Suns superstar Kevin Durant joined a live audio chat on Twitter titled “Kevin Durant is not top 5” Friday night in order to dispute that claim personally with NBA fans.
Durant is known for directly responding to criticism of his play on Twitter — so much so that host Twitter user @LegendOfWinning said “Oh here comes Kevin Durant. Jesus Christ,” when Durant joined the ongoing space at around 40 and a half minutes into the group conversation.
The mercurial forward criticized the fans’ entire outlook on basketball, saying “I just think how y’all even look at the game is whack … You factor in team success when you talking about players. I just think how y’all consume the game is trash, like are you good or not?”
As for his personal criteria for how to achieve basketball success, Durant said that being a two-way player on the hardwood is essential.
“First of all, can you hold your own on both ends? Can you guard up & can you go get a bucket on your own. That’s the base. If you can’t do that stuff on your own, it’s gonna be hard for you to survive,” Durant explained.
Durant formerly played for the Seattle Supersonics, which became the Oklahoma City Thunder upon relocation — he would win an NBA league MVP with the Thunder in the 2013-2014 season.
After the 2015-2016 season, Durant joined the Golden State Warriors in what some considered to be a superteam, winning two titles and two NBA Finals MVP awards with them in the 2016-2017 and 2017-2018 seasons.
After that, Durant went to the Brooklyn Nets in free agency with the controversial Kyrie Irving in the summer of 2019, before eventually being traded to the Suns at the trade deadline of the 2022-2023 season. The Suns and Durant would lose against the eventual champion Denver Nuggets in the second round of the playoffs.
