“You Don’t Have to Score to Win?”: Kevin Durant Lashes Out at Fan ‘Disrespecting’ Him Using Giannis Antetokounmpo

Another day and another Kevin Durant beef with an NBA fan. Beginning his day with another, he lashed out at a fan on X who believed that KD doesn’t prioritize defense and is all about getting buckets. The fan alluded to an X post by Giannis Antetokounmpo in which the Greek Freak wrote “It all starts from the defense. Then the offense comes easier.” While addressing these words by Antetetokounmpo, the fan opined that elite offense can’t alone account for championships.

The X user wrote, “This is why i dont respect alot about KDs ball knowledge.” After Durantula read the fan’s take, he asked the user to provide instances where he has said that it is all about offense when it comes to titles.

Responding to this, another KD critic brought out a tweet from the 4x NBA scoring champion from July 2023. In that tweet, Durant wrote, “Offense wins u championships brother” referring to a post that claimed that “offense put’s people in the seats but defense wins you championships.” When the KD critics highlighted this post, Durant clapped back with,

“Brother, so you don’t have to score to win?”

As usual, the 2x Finals MVP wasn’t holding back at dishing his opinion about what he perceives as disrespectful conduct towards him. However, he deleted the tweet later.

Kevin Durant woke up and chose violence pic.twitter.com/JfGUXe41LK

— What are NBA Celebs Upto? (@NBACelebsUpdate) February 4, 2024

The Suns forward is one of the most active NBA athletes on Twitter and engages in such back-and-forth regularly. Recently, when he returned to his former home, Brooklyn, he went at it with the Nets fans who were against the idea of playing a tribute video.

Sarcastically agreeing with them, Durant had a long exchange and this wasn’t the first time he had a nasty X war with Nets fans. At any rate, are critics fair at blasting his defense?

Kevin Durant can hold his own on defense

While he has never won any All-Defensive Team honors, Durant can be a tough defender. Considering his huge size and wingspan coupled with quick feet, he can make recovery on jumpers and provide viable weak-side help. Durant’s ability to guard multiple positions is a huge boon.

He is also a great option to stall tall and strong Wings. In one of the prime examples, Durant did a terrific defensive job on his perennial rival LeBron James. He held the high-IQ slasher, shooter, and creator to a mere 10 points on 3/10 shooting.

In 20 years and 1,421 games…

Lebron has scored less than 10 points in 8 regular season games, 7 of which came in his first 2 years

The last time he scored under 10 points in a regular season game…The first iPhone had not been announced yet pic.twitter.com/1ebFpEKYSB

— Frank Michael Smith (@frankmikesmith) September 18, 2023

This was a rarity considering it took around a couple of seasons for someone to limit James under 11. This is why Durant’s teammate Bradley Beal expressed in the post-game interview,

“You know LeBron is a high-IQ player and can dominate the game and take things away from you. For KD to be locked in and make his downhill attacks tough, that was elite.”

“I asked K, I think out of one timeout, I said ‘K, who you want to guard right here?’ He said, ‘Whoever has the ball.'”

Bradley Beal on Kevin Durant as he took on challenge of checking LeBron James, who finished with just 10 points on 3-of-11 FGs.

“That was elite.” #Suns pic.twitter.com/VBFDBOCbJs

— Duane Rankin (@DuaneRankin) January 12, 2024

This is one of the reasons why Durant doesn’t let go of his critiques easily. There can be instances when they can criticize him for things where he excels. He wants to remind them that he remains unfazed and is one of the best players in the world.