Jared Wickerham. Getty Images.
The ink is still not dry on the internet on the blog I wrote today about Kevin Durant hopping on Twitter and burying random people on Twitter who try to tell him how to play basketball.
And his next target is Keyshawn Johnson. With a few days off before the game against South Sudan, Durant clearly has a lot of free time on his hands. And it’s no secret that he’s on Twitter in his free time, ready to pounce whenever someone decides to play around with his name. And Keyshawn did just that.
I wouldn’t say Keyshawn is wrong, considering Paul Pierce is one of the best players of all time. Pierce would be awesome to have on the Warriors team. He’s a first-ballot Hall of Famer and a top 75 team member (he was also a top 50 player, by the way). So adding a player like him to the Warriors’ dynasty trio would likely be pretty good.
But what’s weird to me is that people still try to diminish KD’s accomplishments with the Warriors. Was it pretty awful for him to be with that group? Sure, but it doesn’t change what actually happened on the court and how important Durant was to the Warriors’ title run.
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It’s kind of insane and pretty disrespectful to think the Warriors would have had the same success if they’d put in any player, even if that player was my favorite, Paul Pierce. First off, there’s no way to prove any of it, so at the end of the day, you’re just hating on the player after nearly a decade…for what? Especially after KD’s performance against Serbia? To me, that just seems lame.
Sure enough, KD had some time on his hands, so he spoke out, just like we all expected, once the video started going viral.
Boom… roast? Look, I hate to say it, but you’ve got to give KD the points here too. The Jets were 3-13 before Keyshawn joined the team and 1-15 after he joined. Just like it’s impossible to prove Keyshawn wrong with Pierce’s argument, the same is true with KD.
If you’re of the opinion that KD should grow up and ignore all the nonsense online, then you know by now that that’s not possible. He’s right, all of these theories are ridiculous. I had to hear it all the time while Jayson Tatum was winning titles with the Celtics.
“Yeah, you could take him off the team and replace him with a much worse player and the team would still win!”
However, that ignores the fact that those players may have played a part in why they (and the Warriors) were so dominant, especially since they played such key roles in winning championships — two of them in Durant’s case (and two-time Finals MVP).
If anything, this highlights what’s wrong with the discussion of sports in 2024. Everything is hypothetical and spoken of as if it’s fact. It’s really exhausting and only used as a way to put someone down. It’s kind of sad.
On the bright side, we get to have moments like today with KD on Twitter, and I’m always grateful for athletes who don’t sit back and call these idiots out when they have a legitimate reason to.