Kevin Durant admitted he sent tweets out that trashed his former coach and team on Tuesday, a stunning admission when you consider just how many ways he could have talked himself out of it. He could’ve gone with the tried and true, “I was hacked” excuse, which only works once, or even a more believable, “My social media manager forgot to log out of my account” excuse, which would explain pretty much everything.
Instead, Durant spoke at a TechCrunch event in Silicon Valley on Tuesday and was asked about an incident that happened Monday, when his Twitter account tweeted at a follower who asked for a “legitimate” reason Durant should have left the Oklahoma City Thunder two summers ago.
Speaking in the third person, Durant’s account called out Thunder coach Billy Donovan and the lack of quality of his Warriors teammates outside of Russell Westbrook. On Tuesday, Durant admitted the tweets were “childish” and “idiotic.”
https://twitter.com/anthonyVslater/status/910209768274272256
It’s amazing that, even with the firewall of a second (or third or fourth and so on) Twitter account, Durant would speak so poorly of the Thunder and Donovan in the first place. Durant’s been very deferential in speaking about leaving Oklahoma City over the last two seasons. He’s let fan anger and resentment in OKC speak for itself and has, until this, publicly tried to take the high road since leaving. But it’s clear that all the talk has gotten to him, and now it’s also clear it manifested itself in more than just a fun pair of shoe insoles.
What’s so surprising about the admission that Durant is the most millennial NBA superstar possible is not that he did something so strange, but that he actually fessed up. Once Durant slipped up and tweeted from the wrong account, the tweets were deleted and the only other tweets sent from his account on Monday were related to corporate partnerships or promotions.
Durant could have easily said someone who has control of his account for those purposes accidentally tweeted out a defense for him. There were ways out of actually admitting he was talking trash online, which could open up a whole new set of problems for Durant. That “person,” real or otherwise, would never have to be named. Critics would be incredibly skeptical, there would be jokes, but eventually everyone would move on. Call it Ted Cruzing, if you will.
Instead, Durant addressed it head on and all but admitted he had alt accounts to help defend himself online. It’s an extremely weird thing to do, sure, but it’s actually weirder that he’d come out and admit it happened in the first place. In this modern world where flat out lies are all the plausible deniability one needs to skate by in the public eye, Durant did something surprisingly rare in 2017: he told the truth.
The why of Durant’s actions is certainly another story. And there will be repercussions to him calling out Donovan and the rest of his former Thunder teammates. It’s actually ironic that the only person he didn’t call out is Russell Westbrook in this case, considering their public feud last year. All said, I’m still mostly shocked that Durant actually admitted he slipped up here. Somehow, it seems like that was the hardest route to take and this was the one time where making up an excuse was probably his best bet.
