In his 17 years in the NBA, Kevin Durant has established himself as one of the greatest scorers in league history and built a massive global fan base. But his talents haven’t just been limited to NBA arenas; they’ve also been celebrated at the world-famous Rucker Park in New York, where streetball has shaped basketball culture for decades. Durant has certainly broken some ankles on that iconic court, with New Yorker Fat Joe highlighting one particular play that he called out of this world.
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The legendary rapper shared tales of KD’s dominance at Rucker during his recent appearance on the Club 520 podcast. He compared one of Durant’s performances to Caitlin Clark‘s game against the New York Liberty in mid-June, where the Indiana icon dropped 32 points, including seven shots from downtown. So, it seems that whatever KD did in front of Fat Joe was on a similarly elite level.
And just because it was streetball doesn’t mean Durant was scoring on inexperienced kids. Joe revealed that KD brought his absolute best against some proven talents that day.
“He was shooting, and he ain’t played bums. He was playing against White Chocolate, all those guys. Real players,” said Joe, who wanted it to be known that KD wasn’t just dominating inexperienced players. Considering Durant is a two-time NBA champion and has helped Team USA win four Olympic gold medals, the claim would’ve been believable even without Joe insisting on it.
Regardless, the 54-year-old couldn’t even believe what he saw. “He was giving them the business. They was just straight passing it to him, and the whole five team was just doing this (*dances in place). He was jumping over them from 90 feet. I don’t know how far that sh** is. Naw, this sh** was dumb. I never seen anybody do that.”
It’s always great hearing stories about KD’s love for basketball. But what makes this particular anecdote funny is the history the former Golden State Warriors forward shares with Fat Joe. KD has called Joe a liar before for a previous story he told about him at Rucker. During an appearance on Jalen Brunson and Josh Hart’s Roommates Show, Joe claimed that the future Hall of Famer scored 80+ points in a single quarter at Rucker, and that players there wanted to beat him up for dominating them so badly.
“Kevin Durant scored like 82 points in the third quarter. He don’t like me telling this story,” Joe said. “They chased him out the Rucker, like they wanted to beat him up. He whipped their ass so bad that they wanted to literally beat him up out there.”
Even though that’s probably the greatest endorsement ever, Durant had to shut the fun down by calling the “beat up” part of the story a lie. “Another podcast lie. It was nothing but respect and love out there that night… didn’t feel unsafe for one second,” the basketball legend wrote on X (formerly Twitter).
Another podcast lie. It was nothing but respect and love out there that night, didn’t feel unsafe for one second https://t.co/D1KgNWREhb
— Kevin Durant (@KDTrey5) April 11, 2024
Joe later doubled down, stating, “I was there, he knows I’m not lying. 62 points in 3 quarters.” Good for the rapper for not backing down from being the best hype man of all time. But also good for KD for never letting a fun story go too far, especially if it’s not true.
It’s Durant’s honesty that has made him one of the funniest, most interesting, and sharpest basketball minds of our time. He could’ve taken what really happened at Rucker to the grave. Instead, he just tweeted it. What an absolute legend.
