Kevin Durant fired back at Stephen A. Smith after the ESPN personality said on First Take on Thursday morning that the Phoenix Suns star falls short as a leader who can bring the best out of his teammates.
“I would disagree stephen,” Durant wrote on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter. “I would argue, passionately, that my intangibles have always been on par with my talent.”
KD also responded to another person who suggested the two-time NBA Finals MVP wants to be a “superstar without having superstar responsibilities.” Durant called the take 1,000,000 percent wrong and contended that they had no clue what it is like to be in his position with superstar responsibilities.
Durant addressed another individual who asked him to speak up more by wondering how they could reach that conclusion. “You’re just guessing with no information on the subject,” he wrote. “Be better.”
In response to First Take host Molly Qerim asking about his level of belief in the Suns with Durant as their superstar leader, Smith flatly confessed, “Not much.”
Stephen A. also said there are no doubts about KD’s greatness or commitment, but he does have questions about his leadership and his interest level in improving in that area. “He’s been very lacking in inspiration, in terms of peeling out from those around him whatever you can give him,” he asserted.
“Does he get the others around him to do it?,” Stephen A. asked. “Not only does he not do it, he doesn’t feel the level of responsibility I think he should feel in getting it out of them. It’s like, ‘I did my job, I can’t help it if somebody else isn’t doing their job.'”
“Well, to some degree, you can,” he continued. “When you’re that great and you warrant that much respect and that much deference and reverence, you should be able to be a better leader than he has shown.”
Stephen A. explained he has not seen that level of leadership from Durant in the past and has no reason to believe it will be different with the Suns.
“If I need somebody that’s leading my locker room, that’s gonna galvanize the troops around me to maximize whatever potential we have, that is where history as shown, he has fallen short,” Smith said of Durant.
Meanwhile, KD demonstrated his leadership skills in the Suns’ victory over the Clippers, 116-113, in overtime Wednesday night. Durant scored 25 points, while his teammate Bradley Beal added 24. The Slim Reaper helped his team overcome the deficit in Los Angeles with a 15-footer that tied the game with 21.2 seconds remaining.
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