Kevin Durant has learned the hard way what happens when you join a super team as a superstar that has yet to win a title. Like LeBron James before him, Durant has found himself suddenly thrust into the villain role and, like James, it has taken him a bit to figure out how to deal with it.
Winning his first championship in June and earning Finals MVP honors in the process has seemed to give Durant all the comfort he needs to embrace his haters. Durant has torched trolls on Twitter this summer and has just generally become one of the most open and honest superstars in the league over the past few months.
That wasn’t always the case during the season, most notably with Durant’s return to Oklahoma City where he heard chants of “cupcake” cascading through the arena and fans took out their frustrations on their former star. The chants didn’t visibly shake Durant, but his mother noted her frustration with them in the aftermath.
Durant’s teammates steered into the skid wearing cupcake shirts after the game, and eventually Wanda Durant even joined in the fun later in the year. Now, Durant appears to have fully embraced what he is — a great player, but one some people won’t forgive — and he’s having fun with it. The latest example of that is his new Nike KDX sneaker, dropping September 1, which is called “Red Velvet” and the promo photos not so subtly acknowledge the cupcake nickname he was given by Thunder fans.
Some might say it’s a coincidence, but when millions of dollars are invested in the marketing of Durant and his sneakers, I refuse to believe this isn’t a calculated (and brilliant) decision.
Aside from the marketing genius of embracing the cupcake nickname and flipping it around to sell sneakers, the shoes themselves look incredible. The red, black, and white is a classic color combination and is one that I’m almost always a sucker for, and this is no different. It’s clean, it pops with color, and is just generally a great looking shoe. That said, I doubt it will be a big seller in the state of Oklahoma.
