Blue Man Hoop
Fansided

Kevin Durant on receiving end of Enes Kanter’s subpar shade

By Carlos Murillo

OKLAHOMA CITY, OK - FEBRUARY 11: Russell Westbrook
OKLAHOMA CITY, OK - FEBRUARY 11: Russell Westbrook /
facebooktwitterreddit

Kevin Durant, the 2017 Finals MVP, was on former teammate’s Enes Kanter’s mind after Russell Westbrook won the MVP award.

Two weeks ago, the world watched as Kevin Durant won his first championship. He celebrated on the Oracle Arena court with his Golden State Warriors teammates. Then Adam Silver announced that he was the 2017 Finals MVP.

In the first-ever NBA Awards show, Silver announced this year’s league MVP. While the race was neck-and-neck for most of the season, it was clear that the winner pulled away in the last week or two of the season. Oklahoma City’s Russell Westbrook is the 2017 Most Valuable Player.

More from Blue Man Hoop

Westbrook had a phenomenal season. He averaged a triple-double for the whole year, breaking Oscar Robertson’s record. He somehow dragged his, mostly, lackluster team to the playoffs.

Enter: Enes Kanter. He was a member of that lackluster OKC team. And while he continues to be a strong offensive player, his play and effort on the other end is laughable.

Kanter loves Twitter. If he dedicated himself to pick-and-rolls as much as he did to sending tweets, he’d be a starter whose contract would seem reasonable. He loves Twitter almost as much as he dislikes Kevin Durant.

Ever since Durant made his decision to leave OKC, Kanter has expended a lot of energy trying to tear him down. He’s thrown a lot of shade. He tried to do it again after Westbrook won MVP.

Yes, he is referencing Kevin Durant’s 2014 MVP speech. The Internet, which still hasn’t forgiven Durant for exercising his free agency to do what’s best for him, loved it, as evidenced by the over 16 thousand retweets. But it’s a really poor attempt at taking a shot at the Warriors’ superstar.

He’s calling Westbrook the “Real MVP,” a phrase made famous by Durant. Kanter is trying to repurpose and reattribute that title, but he’s not stripping it from KD. We all remember that it was Wanda Durant, Kevin’s mother, who is the Real MVP.

So, let’s have ourselves a quick recap. Kanter was unhappy in Utah because he wasn’t getting playing time over Rudy Gobert, one of the best centers in today’s game and a big that actually defends. He forced his way out, making the Jazz trade him. He ended up on Durant’s Thunder.

KD gave everything he had and was one game away from the NBA Finals. Kanter played just 12 minutes per game, the same as Randy Foye. He scored less points per game than Marreese Speights did for Golden State.

Durant, who gave everything he had to OKC and decided to leave in free agency instead of forcing his way out, made a decision he thought was best for his family. In a matchup between the Warriors and the Thunder, Kanter decided he wanted to talk trash to Durant. KD later roasted him, saying he wasn’t paying attention because he only worried about guys who actually played–Kanter played three minutes that game.

Now, two weeks after Durant celebrated winning a championship and Finals MVP in historic fashion, Kanter tried to take a shot at him. Instead of celebrating the special occasion, he was too busy thinking about Durant. To make matters worse, he didn’t even throw shade at the basketball player, he (technically) attacked Mama Durant.

Next: Top 25 Warriors of All-Time

Kanter is silly. Seeing trash talk on social media is fun, but only when there’s substance behind it and when it makes sense. He’s taking a lot of L’s and looking really desperate.

If Kanter defended opponents the way he defends Westbrook on Twitter, maybe he’d be able to play more than six minutes per game in a playoff series.

Home/Warriors News