Now With All This New Found Time On His Hands Kevin Durant Has Immediately Taken To Social Media To Clap Back At Charles Barkley

If we're being honest, I sort of feel bad for KD. I'm not someone who hates on Durant for what he did by joining GS. Grow up. I love how honest he is whenever he talks basketball, I love that he chirps back on Twitter, and it doesn't hurt that he's one of the best offensive player's I've ever watched (this sweep notwithstanding). So on some level, it's unfortunate to hear guys like Chuck rip him like this. That's simply the price of doing business though. If you want all the glory when things are going great, you have to take the heat when it's the opposite. It might not always be fair, there were certainly other contributing factors to this Nets disaster, but it's also true that KD wasn't exactly great so with that comes the criticism.

Here's the other part of this rant that's interesting. Chuck isn't wrong. I don't really have too many disagreements with what he said. The only slight disagreement I have is how there is some sort of collective idea that KD wasn't fucking awesome as a Warrior. That's kind of weird in my opinion. Was it Steph's team? Sure, I won't fight you on that. Steph is Golden State. But I also don't think it's fair to say that KD was a bus rider in those titles. It was KD that made these shots

In the 2017 Finals, KD averaged 35/8/5 on 56/48% splits. In the 2018 Finals he averaged 28.8/10.8/7.5 on 54/37%. That's not bus rider shit. So that narrative is a little too played out for me when you look back as to what actually happened.

The beauty of 2022 is you knew KD wasn't going to just let this slide. Not now that he has all this new time on his hands given that he doesn't have to play basketball anymore. So what did he do? He did what he does best, he clapped back on social media

Admit it, KD has a point here. Now I also don't want to go too far in this direction either. Chuck was absolutely a bus driver of a player. He was a monster. I just don't see the angle of killing a guy for "ring chasing" when Chuck absolutely did the same thing, only he came up short. I honestly don't really get the "ring chasing" burn in general. Fans LOVE to say that shit as a way to diminish a player, and really it just comes down to the fact that the superstar didn't choose their favorite team. Nobody complains when a Kevin Durant decides he wants to join your team. You welcome that shit with open arms. People just cry about it when they go somewhere else and now life is harder for your favorite team. 

Oh a guy wants to win a ring? The horror! He has an opportunity to join a basketball fit that helps him get there? What a bum! It's all so weird. I know for a fact that not a single fan of my favorite team will give a shit if KD decides one day he wants to play with Tatum and Brown. That's just how sports and fandom work which is why that whole narrative is exhausting.

I'll tell you this though, I am now more excited than ever for the rest of these playoffs now that Kevin Durant has logged on. All he has to do for the rest of the playoffs is just sit back, watch basketball, and get into it on social media. From an entertainment and content perspective, I love it. Lord knows everyone under the sun is about to get these Nets takes off and rightfully so. We also know there's zero chance KD lets it all slide without chiming in. If you ask me, this is only the tip of the iceberg.

There's a simple solution to all this though that every player should remember. If you don't want this stuff to be said about you, win. It's that simple. They don't say this shit about winners. Unfortunately, Durant and the Nets couldn't even manage to do that a total of one (1) time. That's rough.