by Marcel Mutoni / @marcel_mutoni
Oh boy.
Look what you’ve gone ahead and started now, Zen Master.
Just before the Thunder’s final regular season game last night, Kevin Durant was asked about Phil Jackson’s comments earlier in the week about the young star’s treatment from the refs. KD did not back down.
From the Oklahoman:
“Ever since KG said something, everybody’s been questioning how I get to the line,” Durant said. “If you watch our games, you wouldn’t question it. The NBA should put us on national T.V. more, I guess.” When asked whether Jackson’s comment fired him up more, Durant, “Yeah, it does.”
“Because it’s taking away from what I do,” Durant said. “That’s a part of my game, getting to the free throw line and being aggressive. If you say that I get superstar calls or I get babied by the refs, that’s just taking away from how I play. That’s disrespectful to me. I don’t disrespect nobody in this league. I respect every coach, every player, everybody. I never say anything bad about anybody else or question why they do this or do that. So for them to say that about me, I don’t even want to use no foul language.”
Durant said he doesn’t think Jackson’s comments will have any influence on how the officials call the series. “If the refs pay attention to that and change how they call things because of that, that’s terrible,” Durant said. “That’s terrible to the game of basketball and to us. If that happens, then (coach) Scotty (Brooks) could talk, too. Or any other coach could talk to just so the refs could switch everything up. But I doubt they do that. They’re smarter than that and they have more skills than that as refs. So I don’t really worry about it too much.”
Even before the posturing began from both sides, the Thunder/Lakers series was already one of the most highly anticipated first round matchups in this year’s Playoffs. Now, things have been taken to an entirely new level. Thanks, Phil and Kevin!
The fun begins in Los Angeles this Sunday, at 3:00pm Eastern.
