Oklahoma City Thunder forward Kevin Durant is finished being politically correct with the media. He took aim at reporters on Saturday during the 2015 NBA All-Star weekend, telling them they "don't know s----" when the subject of his coach's job security came up.
Durant has been gradually shedding his nice-guy image this season in favor of becoming one of the league's more outspoken stars. He took it another step during the All-Star weekend in New York. When asked by reporters on Saturday about the job security of his coach, Scott Brooks, Durant didn't hold back.
"You guys really don't know s---," Durant told the reporters, according to ESPN.
A reporter later asked Durant what kinds of questions he would prefer for the media to ask.
"To be honest, man, I'm only here talking to y'all because I have to," Durant said. "So I really don't care. Y'all not my friends. You're going to write what you want to write. You're going to love us one day and hate us the next. That's a part of it. So I just learn how to deal with y'all."
Durant had come across as a quiet and shy, but polite, player in his first seven seasons in the league. But now 26 years old and in his eighth season, Durant has become more blunt and seemingly unafraid of maintaining his "Mr. Nice Guy" image with the often fickle media.
"My first few years in the league, I was just finding myself," Durant said Friday. "I think most of the time, I reacted based off of what everybody else wanted and how they viewed me as a person. I am just learning to be myself, not worrying about what everybody else says, I am going to make mistakes. I just want to show kids out here that athletes, entertainers, whoever, so-called celebrities, we aren't robots. We go through emotions and go through feelings and I am just trying to express mine and try to help people along the way. I am not going to sit here and tell you that I am just this guy that is programmed to say the right stuff all the time and politically correct answers. I am done with that. I am just trying to be me and continue to grow as a man."
