Kevin Durant railed against the ubiquity of analytics in today’s NBA during an appearance on The Bill Simmons Podcast this week.
.@KDTrey5 returns to 'The @BillSimmons Podcast' to talk about the ROY race, the LeBron partnership, the revamped All-Star Game, and the desire to master the sport https://t.co/MjbBtmpf60
— The Ringer (@ringer) March 28, 2018
Durant says he only cares for “real stats” and thinks fans, media and “blog boys” don’t sit through nearly enough games.
KD added that winning a championship last summer didn’t change him in any way.
Per NBCS Bay Area (via The Ringer):
“I don’t like analytics at all. I like field goal percentage defense, I like field goal percentage, I like turnovers, I like rebounds — the real stats. The true shooting percentage and effective field goal percentage and all that stuff. Come on man. It’s flawed. PER. It’s flawed.
“You can’t look at numbers first and then watch. (People) are lazy. They don’t want to watch games. It’s too long, it’s too hard to watch a game. There’s a bunch of coaching vultures in the game right now. It’s a bad place.
“Can I make a PSA real quick? All your blog boys and your fanboys that’s gonna use everything I say and create an article — watch a basketball game. How about you write that. I just want to say that, because all these guys are gonna write articles and get real mad about what I said tonight … they’re gonna put their emotions into it. It’s not about you. Watch a basketball game. Enjoy the game. Stop worrying about me so much. I just wanted to say that.”
Durant also shared the following story:
“People tell us we’re superstars, and we really aren’t … after we won the championship, I had Taco Bell and it ran through me just like it would a normal person. I’m like, ‘Oh sh*t. I thought I had a golden stomach (joking). I thought I was immune to everything, but no.
“That’s the perception of it all — we’re just immortal. We’re normal fu**ing people who are really good at what we do. But at the end of the day, we go to sleep just like everybody else. We really put on our pants just like everybody else … it made me realize that I am not king anything because we won a championship.”
