NBA superstar Kevin Durant is a social media darling, in that he isn't afraid to yuck it up on social media with his fans (and detractors), but perhaps he recently took his habit too far.
Videos by FanBuzz
In fact, he actually acknowledged that he took his Twitter game too far. Responding in the third person to a fan (it was either that or his social media guy forgot to switch over accounts), Durant trashed his former head coach at Oklahoma City, Billy Donovan, as well as most of his OKC teammates outside of Russell Westbrook.
The fan on Twitter asked Durant why he left Oklahoma City if not just to chase a championship with the Warriors.
"He didn't like the organization or playing for Billy Donovan," Durant said. "His roster wasn't that good, it was just him and Russ.
"Imagine taking Russ off that team, see how bad they were. KD can't win a championship with those cats."
That comment ignited a storm of controversy around Durant, and he apparently felt bad enough about it to apologize while on stage while at an event in San Francisco on Tuesday.
Anthony Slater of The Athletic passed those comments on:
Durant also spoke with Sam Amick of USA Today, and he expressed, even more, remorse for his social media goof up.
"I played a little too much, and that (expletive) really hurt me," Durant, who first addressed the situation on a TechCrunch panel about athletes and branding, told USA TODAY Sports afterward. "To know that I affected Billy Donovan and the Thunder - like I love those people and I don't never (want to hurt them).
"That was just me being a total (expletive) idiot. I own up to it. I want to move on from it. It probably hit me probably harder than what everybody (thought). Everybody else was telling me to relax, to snap out of it, but I was really, really upset with myself more than anything. It's not the fact that people were talking about me, because I deserve that, but I'm just more upset with myself that I let myself go that far, you know what I was saying? It was a joke to me at first. I was doing it all summer, and it went too deep. I went too hard... I haven't slept in two days, two nights. I haven't ate. It's crazy, because I feel so (expletive) pissed at myself and I'm mad that I brought someone into it."
The good news for Durant is that he realized that what he tweeted (or what was tweeted on his behalf) was not a good look, and it seems rather apparent that he is truly remorseful for taking a shot at his old coach and teammates.
That's one of the worst looks in sports and it can make someone like Durant go from a hero to a zero real fast in any city. Sure, he's been trying to play the bad guy with his move to Golden State, but for all intents and purposes, KD is a good dude who just likes to play basketball and mess around with fans on Twitter.
Sometimes when you mess around things can go a bit too far, and we'll count that as a lesson learned for the NBA superstar.
