Gary Sheffield, Jr
Videos by OutKick
Brooklyn Nets’ star Kevin Durant has been fined $50,000 by the NBA for his exchange on Instagram with actor Michael Rapaport. Really goes to show that the media can talk any way they please and players are expected to let it go. It’s too bad we no longer live in a generation where disrespect transitions to a knuckle sandwich.
NBA is fining Kevin Durant $50,000 for social exchange with actor, sources tell ESPN.
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) April 2, 2021
Here’s the exchange for those that missed it:
Kevin Durant pretty much ended Michael Rapaport’s life in the DM’s. This needs to be hung up in the Louvre. pic.twitter.com/lWjqNbzjhQ
— Joe (@Yankeelibrarian) March 30, 2021
KD has shown a willingness to engage with the media that past and present athletes never did, and now it bites him. Not saying he should threaten Rapaport, but he just has such a punchable face. Plus, it’s not like anyone enjoys input from the actor, so at some point an athlete was going to react.
Shouldn’t surprise anyone that Kevin Durant happened to be the one.
But considering KD’s deep pockets, he should’ve hired someone to go kick his tail. Outkick’s Clay Travis mentioned via Twitter that the NBA was hypocritical if they didn’t punish Durant the same way Leonard was ousted by the Miami Heat. And respectfully, I have to disagree.
The NBA suspended & fined Meyers Leonard for a racial slur while playing a video game, NASCAR suspended Kyle Larsen for a year for a racial slur during a video game. So why does nothing happen to Kevin Durant for much worse racist & homophobic comments? https://t.co/nyFr504qdi
— Clay Travis (@ClayTravis) April 2, 2021
Here’s reality:
No one actually gives a rip that KD used “homophobic” terms in his barrage of messages towards some afterthought of an actor, just how folks didn’t actually care about Meyers Leonard’s words. It’s not even a white or black issue. What’s actually happening here is Meyers Leonard was chastised because he was a perceived “political threat”. That’s it.
Fans should demand that the NBA stop pretending to care about incidents like this and treat all the players the same. They’ll never do it, though, partially because KD is too valuable to the NBA to black list him from the league.
The way to fix the hypocrisy of the NBA is not by pretending to be offended by the words of Kevin Durant, but instead by demanding none of this to matter. It’s the only way. Our only hope now is that someone puts up $50,000 for someone, anyone, to slap Michael Rapaport.
Why pay 50 grand to punch Rapaport in the face when the herpes cold sore does that a few times a year?
If Durant has one of his burner accounts on this site…that’s how you up the trash talk game.
Rapaport needs his ass beat. Dude is garbage.
I don’t necessarily disagree with you on the idea of KD’s homophobia not mattering, but at the same time it’s extremely difficult when ONE SIDE is the one that has to accept hypocrisy, and we know damn well the other side will never agree. What I mean is, KD is a default Democrat who has done something that got Steven Crowder in hot water – and honestly I’m not even sure if what Crowder has said in the past is even equivalent to what KD did. If we are supposed to let KD off the hook, we know that the left will NEVER allow someone on the right like Crowder the same. Turning the other cheek is damn hard to do, though I supposed that’s the point of the concept.
i dont really care either way, these dudes are both basic humans…ones on the internet, ones on a basketball court…not much to offer really
Superboy
Who the F is Michael Rapaport? Seriously, I would not know him from my mail carrier.
Superboy from Copland
People like Rapaport and Durrant completely deserve each other.
Anyone who wants to punch Rappaport in the face is OK in my book.
These athletes are overpaid and soft.
Rapaport killed it as Daryl Crowe Jr on Justified.