NBA star Kevin Durant wasn’t feeling all the jokes Black Twitter made at his expense Monday night after a photo of what appeared to be extremely dry skin on Durant’s left ankle went viral on social media.
The trouble began after the Twitter account for SLAM Kicks tweeted a few pictures of Durant ahead of the Monday night game between the Brooklyn Nets and Cleveland Cavaliers. It appears the tweet and one of the photos — shot by SLAM photographer Daren Scarberry — were meant to showcase Durant’s custom Nike Zoom Air sneakers.
“Can say a lot without saying any words,” the tweet’s caption read.
But eagle-eyed Twitter trolls quickly focused their attention on the small portion of skin on Durant’s left ankle that was visible in one of the photos. Before long, the roast session began, making Durant’s name one of the nation’s top trending topics on Twitter overnight.
One Twitter user compared the condition of Durant’s skin to the fictional Greyscale disease featured on HBO’s hit series “Game of Thrones”.
Durant declined to take Michelle Obama’s famous advice late Monday night when he fired back at the keyboard comedians.
“I’m bouta [sic] pull my ‘y’all broke’ card in a second. F— y’all,” the 11-time NBA All-Star tweeted.
The 33-year-old is notoriously petty when it comes to dealing with famous people, his former team, and even NBA fans who criticize him online. Actor Michael Rapaport endured Durant’s digital wrath in March when Rapaport shared screenshots of threatening DMs Durant sent him after the Higher Learning star criticized him.
“I receive threats and disgusting messages DAILY, but never in my wildest dreams did I think [Durant] would be among them,” Rapaport tweeted in March along with threatening messages he said Durant sent him. “The [snake] himself is now threatening me, bringing up my wife, and wants to fight.”
In 2017, Durant was accused of creating a fake Twitter account to throw jabs at former coach Billy Donovan and the Oklahoma City Thunder. At the time, Durant’s verified @KDTrey5 Twitter account tweeted responses to a fan’s question about why he left OKC.
“He didn’t like the organization or playing for Billy Donovan,” one tweet read. “Kd can’t win a championship with those cats,” said another.
It appeared Durant meant to send those tweets from a fake account, according to the LA Times, which pointed out the sender’s use of third-person pronouns. KD apologized for criticizing Donovan while answering questions at TechCrunch’s Disrupt event in San Francisco later the same year, according to ESPN.
But in early 2020, Durant vowed to continue clapping back at his critics.
“Certain people — I’m gonna come back on my regular account,” KD told Matt Barnes and Stephen Jackson on a February 2020 episode of their All the Smoke podcast. “But, I got the burner [account] I just slipped up that one time. We know why I slipped up,” he added.
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