With the Golden State Warriors winning their fourth championship with the Stephen Curry, Draymond Green, and Klay Thompson core on Thursday, there has been plenty of chatter about the key member of their last title team who isn’t on this one, Kevin Durant.
Durant has become a lightning rod of sorts for fans and pundits alike who look down on his two rings (and Finals MVP awards) from his time with the Warriors as the worst of the superteam era. Charles Barkley has been front and center in questioning Durant’s ability to be a “bus driver,” insisting that those Warriors teams were still Steph’s even when Durant was winning Finals MVP awards. Chuck began that commentary as the Nets were getting swept by the Celtics, but circled back and brought the “bus driver” comment back out after the Warriors title win during an appearance on ESPN’s Get Up! on Friday.
CJ McCollum defended KD’s credentials on Monday in response to Chuck on the same program, which is when Durant caught wind of Barkley’s latest comments and offered a rebuttal of his own, calling Barkley a “hatin old head.”
All this shit is nasty, another terrible analogy from a hatin old head that can’t accept that we making more bread than them. It’s just timing Chucky, don’t hate the playa https://t.co/43BWSuijjV
— Kevin Durant (@KDTrey5) June 20, 2022
It’s not the first time Durant and Barkley have gone at it, and surely won’t be the last. As for the legacy talk, Durant is so used to it from fans at this point that he pointed out that this latest Warriors title does nothing to him, explaining that for those who hated his time on the Warriors, his legacy died when he signed there in 2016.
I been dead since July 4th 2016, but congrats to the dubs and my boy Steezy, a Fillmore legend, man been waitin his whole life for a parade on market st. https://t.co/LXtyvu7BwB
— Kevin Durant (@KDTrey5) June 17, 2022
What will be fascinating is whether Durant has a chance to make a run of his own next year to answer the struggles of the Nets this season, with rumors swirling about the future of Kyrie Irving. How that saga plays out is more impactful on KD than the Warriors latest title, but he’s at least happy that Steezy is happy.