Kyrie Irving and Kevin Durant were supposed to be a generational duo on the hardwood. Three years later, Durant has been about what we expected, but Irving hasn’t held up his end of the bargain. Even on social media, Durant is running circles around Kyrie. Durant and Kyrie have waaaay too much free time on their hands. Wives, kids, and the playoffs are none of their concerns.
But the way they interact on social media couldn’t be more different. The difference is that Kyrie fancies himself as a world philosopher. He’s constantly lecturing anyone who’ll listen about societal ills, but from the shallow perspective of a dilettante who possesses the confidence of a technocrat. Nobody’s asking him to shut up and dribble, but at least bring some substance to the table.
On Monday, Kyrie shared his thoughts about living on Mother Earth, which he previously believed was flat.
Huh?
I’ll give him the benefit of the doubt and assume there’s some deeper thought about affordable and ballooning rents bouncing around his mercurial mind. However, Twitter has never been the best medium for him to use to communicate. He isn’t chill enough or funny enough, and he comes across as an airhead when he tries to be witty and concise. He’s the NBA’s hashtag activism king, but there’s no follow-through.
Meanwhile, Durant is a basketball Buddhist. It’s all love and occasionally some blunt real talk. Emphasis on the blunt part, because he must have rolled a fat one this weekend while dispensing sage life and hoops advice to overzealous followers.
Durant briefly ridiculed CBS’ college hoops insider Seth Davis and gave a stiff arm to media analysts, but it was respectful.
He talked double teams, telling one follower, “I think whoever I pass to has to make u pay. Not the guy whos being double teamed”.
He laughed at takes that used Kobe to belittle him in a humble manner: “Lol Kobe was already a championship player man cut it out”
Durant even stumbled upon some rhetorical gold discussing sports media bias information silos. hat’s an evergreen opinion that’s especially relevant in our current political climate.
Durant took the biggest issue with the definition of “leadership” as it pertains to himself and his NBA peers in the superstar class.
It’s not a surprising take from a man who shirked the nickname “Slim Reaper” in favor of being referred to as “The Servant.” During his running mate’s vaccine holdout, it became clear this season that he doesn’t have it in him to lead Kyrie.
But for the most part, he seemed to be in a good place even as NBA fans are back to dissecting whether he was even needed on those championship Warriors squads. When it comes to communicating, Durant could show Kyrie the ropes.