Kevin Durant slams ‘legitimate’ fans for taking the NBA ‘for granted’

Kevin Durant has slammed “legitimate” fans in a newly released interview as he tries to keep the Nets at the top of the Eastern Conference.

Brooklyn turned its season around with a 12-1 record in December, and they are currently just 1.5 games behind first-seeded Celtics, with Durant averaging a career-best field goal percentage (56.8).

But speaking to ESPN, the Nets star said he believes fans take the NBA “for granted” because they don’t see the hard work and travel that comes between the games they attend.

Kevin Durant is averaging a highly efficient 29.9 points per game for the Nets this season

“Fans have more entitlement than anything,” Durant said, responding to the notion that fans might question the effort in an average regular-season game.

“So they start questioning our motives for the game or our approach to the game. Those who ask – like who are you? Just shut up and watch the game tonight. We go as hard as we want to go. We go as hard as our bodies will allow at this point.

“They only see us when the games start, but the travel, the drills, the gunfights – we’re moving all the time. So not every game will be a high-intensity playoff game.

The nets have been greatly improved since Jacque Vaughn took over from Steve Nash

While every team has nights when the regular season gets rough, the Nets under Jacque Vaughn have shown a renewed commitment to the win.

The team has won 23-8 after seven games since taking charge, and their detail-oriented approach appears to have differed from the Steve Nash days.

Durant reportedly called for Nash to be fired during the offseason, while he and teammate Kyrie Irving have publicly praised Vaughn’s ability to improve performance on the boards and his short leash when calling time-outs.

“My whole thing was like — are we, does the process matter to us? And that’s one thing that I knew people enjoyed grinding around here. So that was the most important thing for me,” Durant said of his perspective in the summer.

“Titles and stuff come with the process where you — how you prepare. It was more like, “Okay, are we going to practice harder? Are we going to pay more attention to detail?” Not just everyone else, all of us, including me. Is that preached to us every day?’

Under Vaughn, the Nets have improved their defenses and rebounds tremendously, with their ninth-best defensive rating putting them on the table as legitimate contenders.

Victor Wembanyama is a massive 7’2 with the grips and shooting ability of a guard

Most teams won’t have realistic title hopes this summer, however, and the usual race to bottom in the standings – and potentially to the top of the draft – will become even more frenetic this season as the Victor Wembanyama generation awaits a lucky team.

The highly competitive Durant is not averse to this, calling refueling for specific teams “smart business”.

“I don’t see a problem with that because every year there are only a few teams that can win it anyway,” he said.

“So the rest of the league is trying to figure out where they are. And that’s pretty smart, if you’re a team and you know you’re not going to be a playoff team or a play-in team, you might as well try to play for [the No. 1 pick].’

The Nets’ 12-game winning streak was snapped by Chicago on Wednesday, though it wasn’t a fault by Durant as he had 44 points in the loss.

They will try to get back on track on Friday against a Pelicans team without Zion Williamson.