Kevin Durant Took Aim At The Media For Questions About The Knicks And Free Agency

Kevin Durant hadn’t spoken with the media in nine days until Wednesday night after a Warriors blowout win against the Spurs.

The superstar has been oddly quiet over the last week plus while rumors swirled about his impending free agency and the growing suspicions within the Warriors organization that he is likely to leave this summer. The Knicks are the presumed target destination for Durant, especially after clearing enough cap space for two max contracts with the Kristaps Porzingis trade.

When asked about his avoidance of the media recently, Durant was a bit prickly. He at first tried to just say he didn’t feel like talking the past few days, but when pressed he opened up about what was really bothering him: the constant questions about free agency and what he felt was unfair discussion about his future, namely by Ethan Strauss in a recent piece for The Athletic.

“It’s unnecessary,” Durant said about the chatter over his free agency. “You had a dude Ethan Strauss who come in here and give his whole opinion on stuff and make it seem like it come from me. He just walk around here and don’t talk to nobody, just walk in here and survey, then write something like that. And now y’all piling on me cause I don’t wanna talk to y’all about that. I don’t have nothing to do with the Knicks. I don’t know who traded Porzingis. That got nothing to do with me. I’m trying to play basketball. Y’all come in here every day ask me about free agency. Ask my teammates, ask my coaches, you rile up the fans about it. Dawg, let us play basketball. And then when I don’t wanna talk to y’all it’s a problem with me. C’mon man, grow up. Grow up. Yeah, you, grow up. I come in here and go to work every day. I don’t cause no problems. I play the right way, or try to play the right way. I try to be the best player I can be every possession. What’s the problem? What am I doing to y’all?”

When Strauss noted he hadn’t talked since before the Porzingis trade, Durant was defiant.

“So, who are you? Why do I gotta talk to you? Tell me, is that going to help me do my job better? No, I don’t feel like talking.”

First, Strauss has been covering the Warriors for years and is a well respected writer when it comes to insight into the Warriors and has cultivated plenty of sources deep within the organization from the top down. To say he never talked to anyone is, well, wrong. Not to mention since the piece ran this week and it’s been over a week since Durant was made available, it’s safe to say there wasn’t an opportunity for him to get a comment from Durant.

Beyond that, asking reporters to grow up and let him play basketball and do his job is a bit silly, considering it is the job of the reporters there to talk to him and ask him questions about the games, what’s going on, and, yes, his future. He’s more than capable of providing the stock answer to free agency questions, by insisting he’s not going to discuss that at this time and is focused on trying to win another championship with the Warriors. That won’t end the chatter, as it’s inevitable, but it would go over better than a lengthy silence at this particular juncture, particularly with the Knicks’ recent moves.

No player should make sweeping declarations about free agency. The point of free agency is to have the choice to do what you feel is best for you and to also have the leverage of multiple options for your next destination to get as much as possible from your next deal. No one in their right mind would suggest Durant be forthcoming about what he plans on doing — him opening by saying “I don’t worry about that, that’s your job” when asked about his own free agency is pretty funny, though — but the question is one fans want to know around the league and its their job to ask it.

He’s well within his right to simply shrug it off and insist he won’t talk about it and that’s not his focus. Silence is just going to only fan the flames of curiosity, more so than the stock answer of effectively declining to comment.