After Twitter rant, Kevin Durant has invited Thunder fans to boo him Opening Night

USA Today

2 days ago

Well, any goodwill Kevin Durant built up in recent years went up in smoke this past weekend. After the NBA sparked a fire when it scheduled the Oklahoma City Thunder to host the Houston Rockets for the 2025-26 Opening Night, the future Hall-of-Famer poured gallons of gasoline on top.
The NBA knew what it was doing when it scheduled the Rockets to be in OKC for its ring ceremony. Durant's attendance only added flavor for what was already going to be a very special night for the Thunder as they celebrated their 2025 NBA championship one last time.
To have Durant across the court when Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and his teammates get what he never did in his nine seasons on the Thunder is just old-fashioned classic TV drama. It's the type of scenario OKC fans dreamed of when they brought home the Larry O'Brien trophy.
What's better than winning an NBA championship without Durant? Having him be in the building when the championship banner is rolled out and rings are handed to the roster. The schedule-makers graduated the fan fiction into reality.
It only adds to the eternal beef between Durant and Thunder fans. The two will always be affiliated with each other. It was only poetic for Durant to be traded to the Rockets on the same day the Thunder won their NBA championship in a Game 7 win over the Indiana Pacers.
Whether NBA fans admit it or not, they love the off-court drama that comes with following the league. There's a reason why transactions garner nearly as much buzz as the games themselves. The storylines formed from following the league for years are what make professional sports fun.
Proudly instigating the two parties, Adam Silver must've had the biggest smile on his face when he opened social media on Sunday morning. While Durant has fondly spoken about his time with the Thunder and congratulated the players for their championship, there's no love lost between him and OKC fans.
The hatefulness remains as strong as ever. Nearly a decade into the divorce, neither party is ready to move on. Don't hold your breath on that changing either. If you want to get ratioed on Twitter, the quickest way to do that is by bringing up Durant's contributions to the Thunder.
Sure, Durant is one of the greatest players the NBA has ever seen. He led the Thunder to become one of the more successful teams of the 2010s. The 2013-14 MVP winner headlined an NBA Finals squad and made four trips to the Western Conference Finals in six years.
But none of that matters to Thunder fans. They don't want to hear it. While retiring Durant's No. 35 is the objectively right move and may be inevitable, fans will fight tooth and nail to make sure that doesn't happen. Or at the very least, let their disapproval be loudly known.
All of that context put in the groundwork for what happened on Sunday. In Durant's latest Twitter episode, he went at it against the Thunder. Harder than he's ever had. In the early morning hours, he sent tweet after tweet engaging with a bunch of fan accounts.
Durant trolled the Thunder for needing a decade to win their first championship. Of course, he has two with the Golden State Warriors, after his controversial decision to join them in 2016. He bluntly said he doesn't care or need OKC's love. He went nihilistic when confronted about what his all-time legacy will be. He even said his social media ambitions are to upset fans in a tweet he later deleted.
Sheesh.
Talk about an all-time Twitter rant that gave what is otherwise the slowest part of the NBA calendar some content to run with.
After taking a day to digest Durant's comments, I think he made it pretty clear for those who were on the fence on the boo-or-not-to-boo question for the season opener that circled social media talks this past weekend — let it rip.
If Durant is going to downplay the Thunder's championship, he's inviting fans to boo him on Opening Night. That's happened in his seven trips to OKC since he left. Expect that to continue until the day he retires, and at his eventual jersey retirement ceremony a few decades from now.
At this point, Durant has happily burned his bridge to be eventually admired by Thunder fans for his all-time contributions. There's an alternate reality where maybe things could've been better. After all, time heals all wounds. Instead, the 36-year-old has kept scratching it and stubbornly refuses to let it be fixed.