Kevin Durant Explains Why He Used a Burner Account

As far as anyone can tell, there are three things in this world that Kevin Durant loves more than anything else: his mom, hooping and clapping back at people on Twitter. KD can pretty much be found at all times either on a basketball court honing his craft or on social media arguing with strangers.

Durant’s social media usage has been a blessing and a curse. He’s given us some of the most epic internet takedowns of all time, plus a large helping of insightful basketball commentary, but he also came under fire when it was discovered that he used a burner account.

Durant appeared on The Pivot podcast this week, and he was asked by host Ryan Clark what spending so much time posting does for him.

“It’s just a quick release of something I may be feeling that I don’t hold on to for too long, you know?” he said. “I don’t want to hold on to it. Yeah I see these comments, and I see when people say different things. It’s hard not to see it.”

“But I don’t want to build up all this hate towards media or fans. So I just say what I feel in the moment, and I realized over time that these interactions have brought me closer to the basketball community, and they understand what they’re getting from me, and they know I’mma be real, it’s not a surprise anymore,” KD added.

Nobody can accuse Durant of not keeping it real online, except for the whole burner fiasco. Channing Crowder asked him why he was switching between multiple accounts.

“I wanted to be stealth, I didn’t want nobody to know that it was me,” he answered honestly. Crowder pointed out that Durant can call out any media member he wants. “Why are you so worried about what the man that’s living in his mama’s basement says about you?”  he asked.

“I mean, he need to know too,” Durant replied. “Like seriously, if you’re questioning what I’m doing, then s***, why not get it from the source if you’re that interested?”

Durant refuted the notion that he spends so much time online, saying that each interaction only takes a few seconds of his day before he moves on. He also said that interacting with fans the way he does is good for the league, because it makes people more interested in the sport. Not only that, he believes it would be better if more players followed his lead.

“I feel like if we all were a little bit more authentic with these responses, all of our games would grow,” he said. “I’m starting to see more and more players [doing it] now … Every time I see a guy come out and just say something like that I’m like, you know, I inspired that just a little.”

Durant is still doing his thing on the court in his 18th NBA season, and it doesn’t seem like he’s going to stop doing his thing online anytime soon, either.