Nene Says NBA Referees Allow Kevin Durant To Carry The Ball

The Wizards finally ended the Kevin Durant onslaught on Saturday night, terminating the Thunder’s 10-game winning streak and forcing KD into an uncharacteristic (and unheard of in 2014) 8-for-21 night shooting the ball. After the game, Wizards center Nene spoke glowingly of Durant before taking a dig at him. He also totally throws Kendrick Perkins under the bus, but that’s par for the course these days.

While John Wall helped the Wiz get the win with a season-high 15 dimes, Nene wasn’t too shabby either, scoring 17 points after connecting on 8-of-12 from the field. But the big Brazilian was lured into a bit of a tiff with Kendrick Perkins during the third quarter and talked, via CSN Washington, about how limited Perkins is on the court (for the record, Perk was 0-for-3 in the game):

“That’s what that dude can do. He can’t do anything else, man,” Nene said. “That dude got zero points. Let’s keep it tame.”

However, Nene was a lot more complimentary of KD’s game. When asked how the Wizards limited Durant to such an atypical night shooting the ball, Nene replied, “First of all, pray. Second, have good luck. The third, do your best.”

But Nene also jabbed KD a little bit after all the praise (emphasis ours):

“That dude [Durant] is very skilled, long body, tall, skinny but strong for that kind of body — and the referees are allowing him to carry the ball.”

Even when Nene is trying to flatter an opposing player he respects, he can’t help but interject with a slight bit of smack.

We’ve noticed that Durant has a tendency for coming under the ball a bit when he goes into his crossover, but we disagree with the conspiracy route Nene took when he said the refs allow him — simply because he’s KD — to carry the ball. Plenty of stars past and present almost get to the point of holding the ball on their crossover (Allen Iverson, Michael Jordan and others), but there’s not some mass secret to let KD get away with palming the ball or carrying it on his crossover. What do you think?

(CSN Washington)

Do the refs let Kevin Durant carry the ball?

Follow Spencer on Twitter at @SpencerTyrel.

Follow Dime on Twitter at @DimeMag.

Become a fan of Dime Magazine on Facebook HERE.

×