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Kevin Durant’s Legacy? He’s Still the NBA’s Best Troll

Nick Hall, Last Updated: | News

Few athletes are as divisive as Kevin Durant. The 33-year-old NBA star already has a half of fame career on the court, but his antics off it have drawn the ire of many fans. Burner accounts, ring-chasing and some seriously questionable marketing campaigns have altered the league’s perception of Durant. Where once, he was seen as the most humble superstar in professional sports, The Slim Reaper has fallen out of fashion and it’s a sordid story as to why.

In a recent Reddit thread, basketball tragics revealed that while the freakishly talented forward had traversed the intricate stages of popularity in his early years, a string of bad press coupled with a landmark move to the Golden State Warriors flipped his script.

“(KD) was so cool and to himself, it seemed in OKC and (I) loved watching him, then became a bit dramatic,” one Reddit user wrote. “KD has become the league villain,” another continued. But this origin story isn’t quite as straightforward as it may appear on the surface.

You Da Real MVP

Back in 2012, the former number two pick was on the cusp of sporting greatness and Nike was on hand to guide him to the promised land. It did so by telling everyone KD was ‘not nice’, seemingly playing off his good-guy personality. It was a strange tactic, but one that Durant continued just two years later.

In his 2014 MVP acceptance speech, Durant birthed one of the greatest memes in modern history, when he uttered the line ‘You da real MVP’. A string of hilarious recreations soon followed, covering everything from Subway sandwich artists who dish out an extra meatball to the friendly neighbour that puts your trash out for you when you forget it’s bin night.

“We wasn’t supposed to be here, you made us believe,” Durant said in his heartfelt speech. “You kept us off the street, put clothes on our backs, food on the table, when you didn’t eat you made sure we ate, you went to sleep hungry, you sacrificed for us, you da real MVP.”

When you consider the then-25-year-old Durant’s statement was made about his mother, who battled tirelessly to keep him and his three siblings in school and out of trouble, the memes fall a bit flat. A rare show of emotion, Durant’s speech was heartfelt and honest, and the internet really clowned him for it.

Kevin durant

Image: Kevin Durant/Facebook

Kevin Durant Burner

For many NBA fans, Durant’s downward spiral finally came to fruition with the infamous Twitter Burner account situation. Back in 2017, the former-OKC Thunder star was tweeted, fairly innocuously, about his decision to leave the organisation. Immediately, a chorus of Durant stans responded, defending the sports star in unison, but there was one problem – they all had the same Twitter handle. Worse still, it was the very same Twitter handle that Durant himself used.

Speculation immediately erupted and it wasn’t long before the internet decided that Durant likely meant to defend his honour not from his verified blue-checked account, but from a secret account. Employing a burner would allow him to fire back at critics without fear of retribution, easily slipping back into the anonymity of the internet. While the jury is still out on whether that was the case, it mattered little to the public and the sports media, who flooded social media with memes and jokes.

“This is Durant, taking time from his day to defend himself as someone else—a ruse that takes serious forethought,” Bleacher Report’s Dan Favale wrote at the time. “Even if you forget the mental commitment involved, he’s giving credence to non-believers and haters in droves. Arguing on his own behalf to Average Andy Twitter suggests the opinions of anyone with a take matters. For him to care that much about essentially everyone, when he’s a champion, MVP, Finals MVP and so much more, is fairly shocking.”

Shocking though it may have been, the burner account saga didn’t exactly come out of the blue. Other celebrities have been known to run secret accounts, with Skip Bayless even getting caught up posting positive comments to his own videos, but few receive as much hate as KD.

From ashy legs and bad hair to burner accounts and bad nicknames, Durant has copped it all over the past decade in the public eye, and it’s certainly changed him. The nice guy attitude has been dropped and he’s now seen as some kind of sporting mercenary, travelling from coast to coast to drop 40 on your favourite team. As far as we can tell, that moniker suits the 12-time All-Star just fine.

Kevin Durant’s ‘Legacy’

Anyone who has been following Durant on Twitter recently would know that the NBA star’s feed is refreshingly honest. He isn’t afraid to share his opinions, call out clout-chasing broadcasters and praise the young stars making their way in the league. But in a surprising turn of events, social media has revealed something else – KD’s got jokes.

In a recent Twitter post, the two-time NBA champion playfully jabbed at concerns his trade request destroying his ‘legacy’ by posing the question “Did u add to your legacy today? If so, what did u do?”. Fans fired back with an assortment of mundane activities which Durant responded to in hilarious fashion.

With speculation over his eventual trade destination rife and the media throwing out spicy takes on the daily, it’s impressive to see Durant’s still got a sense of humour. If anything, the prospect of a jaded Durant talking trash with aplomb should worry the league even more, particularly if he winds up on a contender like the Suns.

Whatever the case, it seems like the NBA is finally starting to realise something Kevin Durant’s Twitter followers have known for a long time. The dude is straight-up hilarious.

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EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

Nick Hall

Nick Hall is the Editor-in-Chief of Man of Many and an accomplished journalist. He completed a Bachelor of Creative Industries at the Queensland University of Technology, with a double major in Journalism and Music. Prior to working at Man of Many, Nick spent two years as a journalist with Inside Franchise Business, focusing on small business, finance and legal reporting. In 2021, Nick was named B&T's Best of the Best Journalist of the Year. With an extensive background in the media industry, Nick specialises in feature writing, fashion, lifestyle and entertainment content. A qualified barber and men's stylist, Nick also holds a Cert III in Barbering from the Queensland Hairdressing Academy.

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