Getty Kevin Durant of the Brooklyn Nets and Stephen Curry of the Golden State Warriors.
Kevin Durant is no stranger to going back and forth with fans on Twitter. He has recently come under heavy scrutiny from fans after the assimilation of the Suns All-Star trio of himself, Devin Booker, and the newly acquired Bradley Beal. In response to one fan who called him out on Twitter, the former Nets star had a simple three-word response.
“#ruinthegame,” Durant tweeted on July 9.
The term “ruin the game” was a phrase initially coined by Golden State Warriors superstar Stephen Curry. During a 2015 matchup with the Cleveland Cavaliers, former Warriors coach and ESPN NBA Analyst Mark Jackson claimed that Curry was “hurting the game” of basketball because of his generational three-point shooting.
“Steph Curry is great. Steph Curry’s the MVP. He is a champion. Understand what I’m saying when I say this. He’s hurting the game,” Jackson said.
“And what I mean by that is that I go into these high school gyms, I watch these kids, and the first thing they do is they run to the 3-point line. You are not Steph Curry. Work on the other aspects of the game. People think that he’s just a knock-down shooter.”
Curry and his sneaker sponsor, Under Armour, have since launched a “ruin the game” campaign to promote his brand.
Kevin Durant Discussed Reunion With Warriors Last Summer
Thankfully for the Suns, they acquired Durant from the Brooklyn Nets at the deadline. But that almost was not the case. When Durant made his initial trade request to the Nets at the beginning of the 2022 NBA free agency period, almost every team in the NBA was preparing their godfather offer for Nets general manager Sean Marks.
NBA insider Marcus Thompson of “The Athletic” says that the Warriors superstars (Steph Curry, Draymond Green, and Klay Thompson) had been in contact with Durant about a potential reunion last summer.
“The Warriors superstars have been in conversations with Durant. In addition to catching up, the Hall of Fame-bound peers did entertain the idea of a reunion,” Thompson wrote.
“It was mostly about the stunning nature of it even being possible. The idea of them playing together again had to seem impossible when Durant left in free agency in 2019. It is not lost on them how life has contrived an opportunity for them to come full circle. They see it, like everyone else, and talked about it, like everyone else.”
Chris Paul Sounds off on New Role With Warriors
For those who may be tardy to the party, veteran point guard Chris Paul was traded by the Suns to the Washington Wizards in exchange for three-time NBA All-Star shooting guard Bradley Beal. Paul’s stint with the Wizards was short-lived, as he was traded to the Warriors for Jordan Poole a few days later.
Paul now joins a cast with three Hall of Famers in Curry, Klay Thompson, and Draymond Green. What Paul’s position will be on the Warriors’ roster remains to be seen. There is a possibility that the veteran guard could come off the bench for the first time in his NBA career. But whatever he is asked to do in his new role on the Dubs, the All-Star guard says he is up for the challenge.
“Not to like sound crazy or whatnot, but at the end of the day, it is basketball. You know, it is not brain surgery. I am going into a situation with a bunch of guys who’ve been playing together for a long time,” Paul said to reporters via the Associated Press.
“I’ve been fortunate enough to play on three USA teams, ‘06, ’08, and 2012,” Paul said. “It is high-IQ basketball, guys that play off reads and whatnot, and what you learn is you figure it out. Everybody does not have the answers right now. We’ll practice, I’m sure there’s going to be some things that I’ve got to learn, some things that they’ve got to learn about me, but that’s the case with any team.”