Essentially only capable of speaking in hyperbole, ESPN’s Stephen A. Smith has been a very vocal critic of Kevin Durant’s offseason decision to leave the Oklahoma City Thunder and sign with the Golden State Warriors. Among the things Smith has said are that Durant ruined the season and that the Warriors All-Star is becoming “more arrogant” and “more disrespectful” in Golden State.
Smith’s criticism can often be dismissed because he doesn’t truly add anything but negativity to a conversation. Yet Durant is a human being after all, and Smith’s choice of words really upset his mother, Wanda Durant. So much so that Durant’s mom appeared on ESPN’s First Take on Sunday to directly address Smith’s comments.
Smith, who is a regular on the show, was not there due to the death of his mother earlier this week, a fact which Durant acknowledged, expressing her condolences and sadness for his loss. But after saying that, Durant quickly transitioned to how she really feels about Smith’s comments.
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“I thought [what he said] was quite harsh,” Durant said. “It’s like, ‘who are you, Stephen A., to come at my boy like that?’ When he came to ESPN, was that a weak move for him? He joined some more heavy hitters, right? To up his career, right? To do what was best for him. That’s what he did, right? No one called him weak for that. So why call my son weak for doing the same thing he did?”
It was a salient point and argument by Durant. Her son merely did what people do all the time. He switched jobs because a better opportunity presented itself. And as his mom points out, this is basically what Smith did when he accepted a job with ESPN.
So perhaps Smith may need to reconsider his opinion about Durant, especially since the Warriors All-Star’s mom rather easily proved his criticism to be quite foolish.
