Kevin Durant offers career advice, tells NBA star to ditch his team
Remember the good old days?
Kevin Durant was once one of the NBA’s most likable players?
He never argued with refs, and instead let his play do all the talking.
What’s more, he was practically an official spokesperson for his team, the Oklahoma City Thunder.
Then Durant abandoned the Thunder, opting to sign with the Golden State Warriors, where he earned his first NBA championship.
With Golden State, he’s changed as a player, particularly this year, when he started picking up technical fouls like they were going out of style.
Now, Durant is offering advice to young Milwaukee Bucks star Giannis Antetokounmpo.
And close your eyes, Bucks fans: You won’t want to hear it.
In a recent interview with ESPN, Durant suggested that maybe “The Greek Freak” would be better off elsewhere.
“What I would say to him, I would tell him to play for himself,” Durant said. “Because he’s the one out there putting in the work, he’s the one out there getting up in the morning staying committed to the game.”
Antetokounmpo, however, professed his never-ending love for Milwaukee in a New York Times feature published late last year.
“I’m a low-profile guy,” he said. “I don’t like all these flashy cities like L.A. or Miami. I don’t know if I could be the same player if I played in those cities.”
Durant says he understands Antetokounmpo’s comments, but that’s only part of the equation.
“Obviously (the comments about staying put) sounds good to the fans in Milwaukee and to the ownership, because he cares so much about wanting to please them and play well for them, and I get it. But his career is about him; it’s about whatever he wants to do and however he feels is right for him,” Durant said. “And what type of basketball does he want to play?”
“He’s not going to stay in Milwaukee if he’s not having fun playing the game,” the Warriors star added.
Perhaps nobody mentioned to Durant that Antetokounmpo has three years and more than $77 million remaining on his contract after this season.
Maybe Durant meant well, but he’s probably better served worrying about, you know, his own team.
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