“Kevin Durant comes off as highly sensitive, very immature”: Stephen A. Smith rips apart Nets superstar for homophobic slurs directed towards Micahel Rappaport

Stephen A. Smith says Kevin Durant seems highly immature and expected better from him when it comes to his message with Rappaport. 

Kevin Durant has never been one to shy away from social media ‘beef’. He has always been active on Twitter to interact with fans and nay-sayers alike, with the latter being much more prominent in his mentions.

Ever since his move to Golden State from OKC, he became the NBA’s poster child for what a ‘villain’ could be in this league. His move to the Nets and subsequent recruiting of stars like Harden and Aldridge didn’t really help further his case. 

Kevin Durant has received flak for not only his on-court demeanor but also the way he portrays himself during interviews. He has been called sensitive all the time by fans and the media alike.

Michael Rappaport followed suit and called him out for the same in a TNT interview last December. This resulted in KD going off in Rappaport’s Instagram DMs, calling him out on the comments.  

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What has caught everybody’s eye, however, was the nature by which he called Michael out. He used a wide variety of slurs and insults that can be described as homophobic. 

Stephen A. Smith seems disappointed in Kevin Durant for using homophobic slurs against Rappaport. 

The situation is quite bizarre as Kevin Durant and Michael Rappaport were presumed to be close friends. KD even took to Twitter to semi-apologize for going too far but Rappaport immediately hit Twitter to say that he felt insulted and does not want his wife to be brought into any statements of this sort. Stephen A. Smith took to First Take to the debacle. 

“Let me call out Michael Rappaport. Bro, you violated all types of street code. You had no business making it public, exposing private messages from Kevin Durant, period.” 

“Kevin Durant comes off as highly sensitive and immature. I happen to like Kevin Durant, I think he’s a good dude. I think he’s the kind of person who has his heart in the right place. That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t know better. He is bigger and better than this.” 

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The world in 2021 is much different from what it was 10 years ago in terms of what can be said and what can’t be. Perhaps back then, this might’ve been chucked to the side as it could’ve been deemed as playful banter between two friends (highly unlikely as his messages towards Rappaport were extremely vulgar). 

Nowadays, people are being held accountable for statements that seem derogatory towards a specific group of people. Homophobic slurs don’t fly in the 2020s, as they shouldn’t. Stephen A. Smith is right in the sense that Kevin Durant should have eased up on how he approached the situation with Rappaport.