Kevin Durant criticizes ‘entitled’ fans for taking the NBA ‘for granted’

Kevin Durant has criticized ‘entitled’ fans in a recently released interview as he seeks to keep the Nets near the top of the Eastern Conference.

Brooklyn turned their season around with a 12-1 record in December, and they currently sit just 1.5 games behind the first-place Celtics with Durant shooting a career-best field goal percentage (56.8).

But in a discussion with ESPNThe Nets star said he believes fans take the NBA “for granted” since they don’t see the hard work and travel that goes on between games they attend.

Kevin Durant is averaging a highly efficient 29.9 points per game this season for the Nets

“The fans have more of a right than anything,” Durant said, responding to the notion that fans might question the effort in an average regular-season game.

“So they’re starting to question our motives for the game, or how we approach the game. Those who do question, like who are you? Just shut up and watch the game tonight. We go as hard as we want to go. We go as hard as our bodies allow us to go at this point.

“They only see us when the games start, but the travel, the practices, the shooting, we are constantly moving. So not every game is going to be a high-intensity playoff game.

While all teams have nights when the hard work of the regular season takes a toll on them, the Nets have shown a renewed commitment to winning under Jacque Vaughn.

The team has gone 23-8 since he took over after seven games, and his detail-oriented approach seems to have been different from the Steve Nash days.

Durant allegedly requested that Nash be fired in the offseason, while he and teammate Kyrie Irving have publicly praised Vaughn’s ability to improve the effort on the boards and his lack of control in calling timeouts.

The Nets have improved a lot since Jacque Vaughn replaced Steve Nash

‘My whole thing was like: is it us, do we care about the process? And that’s something that I did know that people here enjoy, grinding. So that was the biggest thing for me,” Durant said of his perspective over the summer.

‘The titles and those things come with the process in which you… how you prepare. It was more like, “Okay, are we going to practice harder? Are we going to pay more attention to detail?” Not just everyone else, all of us, including me. Are they going to preach that to us every day?’

Under Vaughn, the Nets have vastly improved their defense and rebounding, with their ninth-best defensive rating putting them in the conversation as legitimate contenders.

However, most teams will have no realistic title hopes this summer, and the usual race to the bottom of the standings – and potentially to the top of the draft – will be even more feverish this season with generational Victor Wembanyama waiting for a team. lucky.

The ultra-competitive Durant isn’t opposed to that, calling tanks a “smart deal” for certain teams.

“I don’t see any problem with that, because every year there are only a few teams that can win it anyway,” he said.

Victor Wembanyama is a massive 7-foot-2 with the handles and shooting ability of a guard.

‘So the rest of the league is trying to figure out where they are. And that’s pretty smart business if you’re a team and you know you’re not going to be a playoff or play-in team, you might as well try to play for [the No. 1 pick].

“You could also try to get some of the guys who probably won’t get real rotation minutes if you have a good team, give them some reps and maybe those guys can change their lives too.”

Chicago snapped the Nets’ 12-game winning streak on Wednesday, though it wasn’t Durant’s fault, as he scored 44 points in the loss.

They’ll look to get back on track against a Zion Williamson-less Pelicans team on Friday.