The Oklahoma City Thunder staved off a valiant Indiana Pacers team in seven games to win the NBA title last night. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander joined an exclusive list by winning the regular season MVP and Finals MVP, while on the other side, basketball fans are mourning the cruel fate that befell Tyrese Haliburton, who went down early with a torn Achilles.
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The basketball alone was enough to carry the discourse in this postseason, but it wouldn’t be the NBA without a bit of source-less drama drummed up by former players. This time the drama came in the form of an online beef between Kevin Durant, who was traded from the Phoenix Suns to the Houston Rockets yesterday morning, and his former teammate, DeMarcus Cousins.
Cousins drew KD’s ire when he said on the Run It Back podcast that there were multiple fistfights in the Suns locker room this season. Ironically, that report was meant to defend Durant by showing how dysfunctional the team was around him, but KD took to social media to dispute the allegations anyway.
WE GOT BEEF
Kevin Durant and DeMarcus Cousins going back and forth regarding the report that the Suns had multiple fistfights in the locker room. pic.twitter.com/K11uzWyHKq
— Hater Report (@HaterReport_) June 20, 2025
Shannon Sharpe and Chad Johnson dove into the KD-Boogie beef on last night’s episode of Nightcap. Perhaps it’s because they’re both football players, or perhaps because they come from an older generation, but the two NFL legends have a different mindset when it comes to fighting in the locker room, agreeing that a) it’s inevitable, and b) it needs to stay in-house.
“I hate when stuff like that happens, too, man,” Johnson said. “When something goes on in the locker room, it’s supposed to stay right there.” Sharpe agreed, paraphrasing the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority by saying, “Whatever happens in the locker room, it stays in the locker room.”
Whether on the court, in the locker room or on social media, NBA fans can’t help but rubberneck around a fight. The beef between Durant and Cousins is entertaining, but it’s also distracting from the more important angle of the story.
We all knew the Suns were a mess, and whether they physically fought or not doesn’t change that. What’s more interesting is that KD is now joining a Rockets team that finished second in the West behind the Thunder, and Houston was able to get the deal done while only giving up Jalen Green, Dillon Brooks, the 10th overall pick in Wednesday’s draft, and five second-rounders.
Durant is now joining a team that still has swaths of young talent including Amen Thompson, Alperen Sengun, and Tari Eason. He’ll be playing for Ime Udoka, who recently signed a lucrative extension. Many around the league are wondering if this is the start of a Thunder dynasty. Time will tell, but the Rockets are already making it clear that they’re a threat.
