Why Kevin Durant Says His Last Visit To Play The Wizards ‘Was Kind Of Disrespectful’

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On Tuesday, Kevin Durant will make his last stop at the Verizon Center before he becomes a free agent this summer. Aside from Oklahoma City, D.C. is considered the likeliest contender for Durant’s services this offseason, being that the Mount Pleasant, Maryland native would be returning home. But don’t let that fool you. Durant might be a star worth a 10-year, quarter-of-a-billion-dollar Nike contract, but he’s also still the skinny, self-effacing kid who announced his first big contract extension with the Thunder via Twitter in the summer 2010.

That was also the same summer LeBron announced his first, capital D, Decision on national television, so KD’s low-key approach offered the perfect antidote to that bit of self-importance. Now Durant is in the eye of the free agency hurricane, with every one of his comments parsed for innuendo and meaning. And the Wizards — a team who advanced in the playoffs the last two postseasons — haven’t been shy about their intentions this summer, despite a core group poised for continued on-court success. Durant’s discomfort with this fact was evident when he talked to Sam Amick of USA Today about this week’s trip home and the distractions that come with such a loudly trumpeted return.

The last time Durant was in D.C., in January of this year, it was right before he would shut it down for the season after complications surrounding his Jones fracture surgery in his right foot. The hubbub surrounding his trip home with the free agency period still more than year away, wasn’t a good look for his hometown Wizards — at least, according to KD.

“(The Jan. 22 visit) was kind of disrespectful, in my opinion, because you’ve got a great team there already that deserves your full 100% support,” said Durant, who — among many other things — was featured on the Wizards’ jumbotron wearing a Washington jersey during the game. “I wouldn’t like that if I was on that team. I didn’t like that, but it comes with it nowadays.

“Free agency is like a season now, and it shouldn’t be that big. Me, I feel, is you should focus on who you have on your team. It’s easy to get your hopes up and expect a guy to come to your team or whatever — and I’m not talking about myself, I’m just talking about free agency in the past years and in the future — you get your hopes up as a fan, and then they let you down and you end up not liking the player. There’s a little bit too much emphasis on that type of stuff, but it’s part of the game.”

This may or not be a big deal when Beltway denizens end up reading it today, but the trajectory of Durant’s thinking makes sense. The busiest time of year for basketball writers is no longer May or June, when the year’s top team clinches the Larry O’Brien Trophy. No, the biggest month now for basketball writers begins in the first second — 12:01 a.m. — of July, when the NBA’s moratorium period begins and teams can finally fete free agents.

The free agency period comes after the NBA Draft amps up 29 fan bases who had to watch a single team spray champagne all over themselves on ABC. So, it stands to reason the possibility of improvement is now almost preferable to the transient in-the-moment success. The majority of fans dreaming of a future championship trumps one team’s podium dwellers.

But the teams are still playing. Right now, today. Last year, Russell Westbrook won the lone Thunder game in D.C. on a last-second layup.

https://gifyu.com/images/WestbrookGameWinningLayup2.gif

In the summer of 2017, Russ will be the one to face the questions about his future.

For now, at least, Durant will try “to grow and get better.”

“I was always concerned in the past with how am I viewed as a player, what people think of me as a player,” Durant tells Amick. “And now I’m just more so like, ‘I know who I am. I’m content with who I am, and I’m always just striving to get better, man.’ As cliché as that sounds, that’s really what I’m worried about.”

That does sound cliched, but so does the notion that KD needs to spend any more time answering questions about next summer when the Thunder have a job to do this year. A job that’s been eight years and counting for KD, one he feels he owes to the people of Oklahoma City, not whichever city he elects to call home for the next half decade.

(USA Today)

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