The fans & media went crazy last week when Kevin Durant said that Dwyane Wade should be taken out of SI’s top 10 players list and should be replaced with James Harden — then they proceeded to go at each other on social media.
Since then both haven’t said anything about the situation…until yesterday. KD was asked about the beef during an interview on NBC Sports Radio’s The Chris Mannix Show & he cleared the air.
Check out what he had to say about it…
Via SI:
Chris Mannix: I’ve gotta ask you about the firestorm with James Harden and Dwyane Wade and all that nonsense that was out there. You tweeted at me the other day, you said, ‘Don’t buy into this beef Chris, it’s not a real beef.’ Let me ask you this, in this way: Were you surprised it became the story that it did?
Kevin Durant: To be honest, I forgot all about it, I forgot that I said that until I checked on Twitter. A lot of Heat fans tweeted me and said not so nice things, which was expected. But I wasn’t trying to disrespect D-Wade in any type of way or discredit anything he’s done. He’s a champion, their team is a champion. I can’t say anything about their team. I can’t. They beat us in the Finals and they won back-to-back. I can’t say anything about their team. Basically what I was saying was that D-Wade passed the torch onto guys like James Harden, just to name one. I think that was just my opinion. I respect D-Wade, and I’m sure everybody’s saying that he’s going to use that as motivation, but he’s always been a motivated player, and it’s not going to change what I bring to the table. And I’m gonna stand by everything I say. No matter if I’m winning or losing, I’m going to say the same thing.
CM: What did you think of the Instagram photo he posted with the writing on it?
KD: The handwriting was immaculate. D-Wade, he’s a high-level player. I didn’t really think too much about it. It is what it is. Some people get motivated different ways, and that’s how he chose to do it, and I respect him. There’s no disrespect to him or the organization, it’s just how I felt at the time when they were asking the question. Like I said, I’m going to stand behind it. I’m not going to let anybody change my stance on anything. Like I said, I respect what they’ve done as a team, what he’s done as a player. But I was just talking about today as of right now, who I would take.
