Brooklyn Nets forward Kevin Durant did an interview with Bleacher Report’s Chris Haynes on Wednesday that touched on some important areas regarding Durant’s tenure with the Nets. The topic of leadership came up and it appeared to get Durant fired up.
Durant is looked at as many things when it comes to the NBA and the world such as one of the greatest players in basketball history and a successful player-mogul. One thing Durant isn’t considered is a leader.
There have been various events that have happened during Durant’s career to make people think that he’s not a leader. Events like joining the Golden State Warriors in 2016 or even him just saying that all he wants to do is hoop.
Via Bleacher Report:
“I’m not a leader? What the (expletive) does that mean? A lot of people say I’m not a leader because I didn’t tell Kyrie to get vaccinated. Come on. Or I didn’t condemn Kyrie for leaving the team, going out and living his life. I’m not about to tell a grown-ass man what he can and can’t do with his own life and dissect his views or how he thinks about (expletive).
We can have a conversation and exchange perspectives on how I feel about the topic and you feel about the topic, but everybody else don’t need to know or hear about our conversations because we’re grown-(expletive) men. I don’t operate like that.
I don’t need to show or tell everybody what I’m doing with my teammates so y’all can pump me up and say, ‘Yeah, KD, you’re the boss, you’re the leader.’ These other [expletives] need that. I don’t. I don’t come to you and say, ‘Haynes, write this story about me.’ I don’t do that to nobody. But I come here and respect y’all. I talk to y’all like a real one, even after a blowout.”
Durant has been criticized by pundits for not asserting his dominance on any of his teams and it sounds like he doesn’t care what others think about his leadership style.
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