We are still about three months from the start of the NBA season, and already Warriors coach Steve Kerr has to defend Kevin Durant from the idea that he could be the most-hated player in the league. Since Durant signed with Golden State, he has been booed at Staples Center in Los Angeles and torn to shreds by Oklahoma City fans.
Kerr laid out why casting Durant or any of his players in the role of villain is ridiculous.
“To think of Kevin Durant or Steph Curry or any of our guys as villains, it’s kind of absurd. Especially Kevin,” Kerr said Sunday in an interview on ESPN Radio’s TMI with Michelle Beadle and Ramona Shelburne. “This is one of the most likeable people in this league. He’s just an awesome human being. What he did in Oklahoma City was just amazing for that community.
Kerr added: “Circumstances kind of dictate, I guess, that some people are going to see him as a villain. But it’s only because he decided to go elsewhere to play. He wanted to change his scenery, he wanted a new challenge. More than anything he wanted to play with our guys.
It’s absurd, but so are sports, which are a bunch of grown-ass people playing a game for millions of dollars in front of a bunch of average people who feel an emotional connection to strangers because they are way better at sports than they will ever be.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UBBdWXTOsik
That situation lends itself to the absurd, like feelings of betrayal so strong that when an adult you’ve never met decides to take a job in a new city, you shoot up his jersey with a rifle.
Or you could be a teacher telling young people that Durant is a quitter because after his contract with one employer expired, he chose to sign a new contract with a new employer.
And in the mind of a demented sports fan that takes what should be a passing distraction very seriously in an effort to fill the void in his disappointing life, Durant is the perfect villain. He didn’t “show loyalty” and went to the best team in the league in an effort to win that team a championship, not the team that happens to be located near where that person lives.
So Kerr can offer all the logic he wants; it won’t matter to unhinged sports fans who will boo this man in — most likely — every visiting arena next season.
(ESPN)
