Kevin Durant has 13 All-Star game appearances, two NBA championships, two Finals MVPs and one league MVP award but his thinking about his legacy has changed in recent years.
“I don’t care about legacy,” Durant told The Athletic. “I used to. I used to want to carve out a lane or space in this game for myself that people can remember, but it’s become too much of a thing now. It just becomes too much of a focus on other people. What’s he done, what’s he done? Comparisons. Before, when we wasn’t doing all this debating, I cared about it … I’m about to be in the same breath as these top guys. It was big.
“Nowadays, I truly, truly don’t care. I truly just want to go out there and produce, be the best that I could be, go home, hang with my family, that’s it.”
The veteran returned to action for Phoenix in Wednesday’s 107-100 win over Minnesota after missing ten games with an ankle injury.
The forward recorded 16 points on an understandably rusty 27.8 percent shooting from the field and 50 percent from three.
The 34-year-old has long-standing feuds with many media personalities and is known for his banter with fans on social media.
This ain’t gettin tiring chuck? I’ll never respect the words that come out ya mouth fam just deal with it https://t.co/ZGGCIs62El
— Kevin Durant (@KDTrey5) March 27, 2023
He is also a pretty honest and upfront person, but he feels as though other people aren’t inclined that way, which has been one of the reasons he’s blocked out all the noise.
“Once I left to go to the Warriors [in 2016], I figured any logical thing, when it comes to me it’s out of the window,” Durant said. “When it comes to me, people are not going to think in a logical way or simply look at what I’ve done and say that’s it. They gotta add a narrative to it, they gotta push something to discredit me. Once I left to go to the Warriors, it’s been the gymnastics on how to discredit me every step of the way. It’s like, damn, that’s not even fun no more like engaging with people because y’all aren’t even being truthful. You move the goalpost every time, you expect the most out of me and if I don’t reach it I’m a failure. It’s like, what’s the problem?
“I don’t throw my sh*t at people. People want their own experience in the NBA. Their experience is their experience. I can’t say anything. I let it be. When some fan says, ‘KD, I don’t like how you did this.’ I can’t be upset at that. That’s your view and how you look at the league. I just learned how to accept that, move forward and be the best me.”
He has only played four games for the Suns but all of them were a W, so with KD on the floor, it seems the Suns will be even more of a force to be reckoned with in the looming postseason.