Kevin Durant to media: ‘You guys really don’t know sh*t’

Reigning NBA MVP Kevin Durant made it clear what he thinks about the press during an All-Star Weekend press conference in New York Saturday.

No more Mr. Nice Guy for Kevin Durant.

The 26-year-old reigning NBA MVP has been increasingly outspoken this season and on Saturday, he blasted the press after he was asked a question about the job security of Oklahoma City Thunder coach Scott Brooks.

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“You guys really don’t know sh*t,” Durant said succinctly, per The Oklahoman.

That’s just the latest in a marked change in Durant’s public persona this season. Known throughout his seven seasons as a player who took great pains to not say or do anything controversial, that has changed this season.

In its place, a confident Durant who says what he thinks—regardless of how it might come off.

“To be honest, man, I’m only here talking to y’all because I had to,” Durant said later Saturday in response to a query about what types of stories he wants to see in the press. “So I really don’t care. Y’all not my friends. You’re going to write what you want to write. You’re going to love us one day and hate us the next. That’s a part of it. So I just learn how to deal with y’all.”

It’s that type of talk that can get a player a reputation of being a malcontent or a locker-room problem, whether true or not, because whether they will admit it or not, Durant is correct about most of the members of the sporting press.

Darnell Mayberry alluded to that in his piece for The Oklahoman:

Durant’s comments are the latest in a growing list of strongly worded statements that more and more are revealing a small part of the Thunder star’s personality.

I don’t see it as a revelation about his personality so much as I see it as someone who is sick of the media song and dance.

Then again, I wasn’t one of the people who thought Seattle Seahawks running back Marshawn Lynch deserved to be drawn and quartered because he didn’t want to talk to the media.

That reluctance to talk to the press dates back to Lynch’s days at the University of California, so it’s not like this is some new thing. But the media—particularly the national guys—detest it when an athlete does not deign to kiss the ring and play the game.

I mean, who wouldn’t get jaded about constantly being asked incisive questions such as: “Talk about that run.” Is that even a question? It reads more like a demand to me, but hey, what do I know about punctuation?

As for Durant, he says it’s part of a process.

“I’m 26 years old, so I’m in my mid-20s, almost to 30,” Durant said. “My first few years in the league I was just finding myself. I think most of the time I reacted based off of what everybody else wanted and how they viewed me as a person. And I’m just learning to be myself and not worry about what anybody says.”

It’s one of the great myths of sports—this idea that because we hear or read what a player says in a press conference that we somehow know something about them as individuals.

No, what we know is how they react when asked repetitive non-questions from journalists who wrap themselves in the First Amendment and use it as a cudgel.

There’s a pretty stark difference between the two perspectives.

H/T Black Sports Online

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