Durant Gets It. Or does he?

Dear Mr. Simmons,
The NBA finals started tonight.  Perfect time for a super slo-mo reaction to your Kevin Durant podcasts.

It sounded like you got a lot of positive feedback on your sit-downs with Durant.  Here are three takes from my end... please don't be offended:

1.  Why do people do player interviews again?   ..I could spin myself into the ground on this one.  I'll have to explain myself later.  Stay tuned for the "Player interviews are boring as S."  blog post.  Look at me.  Four posts in four years and now I'm throwing out teases and everything.  Don't touch me.  I'm on fire.

2. Your first Durant podcast came out and I hesitated.  But who was I kidding?  You are like pizza.  There's no bad pizza right?  To your credit, I really had no interest in listening to it and you kept me on the line for the whole thing.  I heard several people comment on how fascinating the interview was because Durant was more open than he had ever been.  Yet, from the fan side of things, I came out of it spitting fire at Durant.  I felt affronted by it.  He said something to the effect of...

Who are you? Look at me, I've done more than you'll ever do.

My brain knew what he was trying to say.  Trolls that rag on him only want to spew hate for the sake of misery when in reality he has done a lot of great charitable things for a lot of people and he was just venting.  But my heart wasn't having any of it.  All it heard was:

Who are you to comment on me?  I'm better than you.  

All in all, (despite my irrational F-you reaction) my general takeaway was that he had put a lot of thought into his life and tried to reconcile his feelings and emotions. Still, it seemed like there was something he was missing.

3. Then the second podcast came out.  Aside from the weird chewing sounds at the end, I liked it better than the first.  Durant had been through the Oklahoma City conflagration, and he seemed like he had learned some lessons and taken some strides.  Here's what I think you guys were missing.  He talked about love from fans and how the venom he felt upon his return made him rethink that relationship and question whether it was actually real.

A team to a sports fan becomes family.  Durant gets that part.  His mistake is viewing  it like it is love from sibling or a parent. With a mother, love is unconditional regardless of what you do or who you decide to play for. A fan is more like a cousin, and switching teams is like changing families.  If Durant decided to change his name to join a new family to seek out a better life, his mom would be happy for him.  Cousin Joe on the other hand would be pissed,
"We're not good enough for you any more? Screw you buddy."

In this case, not only did Durant change families, but he joined the Kennedy's and the pain seared like a hot poker in an open wound.  Kevin Kennedy is living it up in San Fran.  Meanwhile, cousin Joe Durant is back in Oklahoma sitting at the Thanksgiving table burning holes staring at the empty chair across from him.  Durant seemed to accept the anger he received, but I'm not sure he quite understands it yet. A fan's love is real.  It just isn't unconditional.  

That's all for now.  Gotta go to bed.  Long live Bill Simmons.

later- a fan