Kevin Durant has become the Rasheed Wallace of the NBA. This is a development not many saw coming.
Kevin Durant needs to take a chill pill. The Golden State Warriors are going to be healthy by the second round of the playoffs, and they have amazing odds of making it to the Western Conference Finals and facing the Houston Rockets there.
But Durant overreacted to a bad call by the referee in his return to the court on Thursday, and he is in danger of building an awful reputation with officials. He was ejected from the game for foul language.
That was his fifth ejection of the year after it only happened once during his first 10 seasons in the league. He has 14 technicals this year, and he told ESPN why his count is so high this season.
"It’s just my emotions and passion for the game. After winning that championship (last season), I learned that much hadn’t changed. I thought it would fill a certain [void]. It didn’t. That’s when I realized in the offseason that the only thing that matters is this game and how much work you put into it. Everything else off the court, social media, perception, isn’t important. What people say, how they view you, it’s not important."
How people view him is definitely changing. The Warriors as a whole appear to be a team full of whiners. They shouldn’t be be acting this way, because they are better than this.
Durant got back to the court after six games out with a rib injury, and it didn’t take long for him to get two technicals. He had some choice words for the referee during the game.
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Durant admitted after the game that an ejection was warranted, but the real question is why he chose to use his comeback game as an opportunity to hurl insults. Head coach Steve Kerr better hope that Durant softens his language a bit more before the playoffs, because it could cost the Warriors a series if one of their players messes up again the way Draymond Green did against the Cleveland Cavaliers in 2016. Stories tend to repeat themselves at times. We’ll see if Durant helps repeats bad history or good history.