KD is highly insecure. He was creating fake accounts on Twitter to justify his departure from OKC on a public media. He hasn't accepted it was a b**** move yet. Until he can sincerely believe "doesn't matter, got my ring", then he'll continue dealing with haters who are clearly getting to him. He has no legacy to repair. He pigeonholed himself to be a ring chaser in his prime who took the easy road. He's gotta accept the haters and just continue getting rings on a stacked team knowing that he is a beta.
I live in Austin so we got a heavy dose of KD worship from local media and he really has done a lot of good work in the community. He seemed totally cool and down to earth until all those Yakuza tattoos we're revealed - there was something odd about the obsessive way he hid them and the sheer amount of work he had done. I don't blame him for leaving Westbrook - even signing with GS wasn't a huge deal IMHO, but the Twitter nonsense and ridiculous ongoing comments are what is really killing him. He has some serious maturity issues that seem to be getting worse with age.
The whole OKC trio of MVP's is weird as ****, let's be honest. We got the least weirdest one, but still... pretty weird dude.
Wonder if it was that long ago that some kids today might not even know what a huge media-darling KD was. Lebron was then snake, KD playing the loyalty-card in OKC. That MVP speech was probably the icing. And as widely-regarded as KD was, the opposite was true for the now, media-darling himself, Russell Westbrook. Even Magic who would only offer lame opinions on TV instead of bashing players, questioned his bone-headed plays and questionable play-making abilities.
Lebron was never a "villain". He left a horrible team in Cleveland and proved all the doubters wrong who were saying he was a fake superstar. Its just the Kobe and MJ fanboys who want to put him down at every opportunity so he won't eclipse their idol. He took a team that barely made the playoffs into 2x champ, 4x finals contender and lead the league in minutes played all 4 seasons. He went back to Cleveland because the Heat were done, Wade and Bosh combined for 10 pts their last game. The diff between the two is Lebron has been hated on from day 1 due to his ego, he called himself the chosen 1 since highschool and that just rubbed people the wrong way. KD oth was seen as a good and humble kid, the "anti Lebron" thats why people are surprised he is a jerk now. In KD's case though it is more of a public perception changing rather than his actual personality changing.
They're weirdos, but they aren't toxic people and don't do bad ****. At the very minimum, all three has made big gestures giving back to their communities. I always thought KD was solid as a person, but he ruined league parity and he was deluded enough to think people would still like him just as much. I hope the Rockets win it all, but we still got this **** to deal with for another 2 or more years. He likely will never take the stand for rape or some other horrible crime like Kobe, so there's an understanding of how screwed up we view our sports heroes... I get that he put in a lot of work to get where he is and that not winning it all is a damn disappointment, but there are thousands of other dudes who do that night in night out at the pro and college level...James, Harden, Westbrook, etc... You get no sympathy from us rich boi.
Refs are robbing KD this year more than ever, which is the main difference. He reacted the same way in the past, just happened less often.
My opinion changed the season we played against OKC in the playoffs and I clearly remember how Durant was jawing and cussing at a fan in Houston. Granted my opinion of him didn't swing either way but that changed my perception of him and how much of a front he puts on during that time to be the Anti-LeBron--the Decision-less, small market, etc choir boy.
