Kevin Durant

About

Kevin Durant is a star NBA Basketball player who currently plays for the Golden State Warriors. He has won numerous awards, including an MVP award and an NBA Finals MVP award, as well as numerous scoring titles.

History

Durant was born on September 29th, 1988, in Washington D.C.^[1] He played one season of college basketball for Texas University between 2006 and 2007. There, he won numerous awards for his outstanding play. He was then drafted by Seattle Supersonics, who moved to Oklahoma City and were renamed the Thunder after the 2007-2008 season, with the number 2 pick in the 2007 NBA Draft and played with them until he joined the Warriors in 2016. With the Thunder, Durant advanced deep in the playoffs several times, advancing to the NBA Finals in the 2011-2012 season, where the Thunder lost to Lebron James and the Miami Heat.

Move to Warriors

Durant attracted criticism when he left the Oklahoma City Thunder to join the Golden State Warriors, who had set the NBA record for wins in a regular season the previous season. On July 4th, 2016, Durant announced his intention to sign with the Warriors in an op-ed for The Player's Tribune titled "My Next Chapter."^[2] Many thought this gave the Warriors an unfair advantage heading into the 2016-2017 season and compared the move to when Lebron James left the Cleveland Cavaliers to join the Miami Heat, who had proven NBA stars Dwayne Wade and Chris Bosh on the team. The Warriors won the championship in the 2016-2017 season, Durant's first in his career. After the season, Durant agreed to resign with the Warriors for less money, allowing the team to keep its core players and sign free agents.

Related Memes

You Da Real MVP

On May 6th, 2014, Durant gave an acceptance speech after being given the NBA MVP Award, in which he thanked his teammates, coach, fans, the NBA, and God. At the end of the speech, Durant singled out his mother, thanking her for the sacrifices she made while raising him and referring to her as the "real MVP" (shown below at 25:20). The same day, the G4NBAVideosHD YouTube channel uploaded the speech in its entirety, which gained over 820,000 views and 990 comments in the first three weeks.

Following the speech, You Da Real MVP became a common colloquialism online. On May 23rd, Redditor jwtj submitted a post asking "What is the MVP meme all about?" to the /r/OutOfTheLoop subreddit, to which several Redditors referenced Durant's acceptance speech. On May 19th, Redditor EyeGifUp submitted an image macro of Kevin Durant thanking people who allow others to use their Netflix accounts for being "the real MVP" to /r/funny (shown below). In the first nine days, the post gathered more than 18,100 upvotes and 360 comments.

Kevin Durant Can't Watch

Kevin Durant Can't Watch is a photoshop meme based on a picture of American professional basketball player Kevin Durant sitting on the court and facing the opposite direction as his Oklahoma City Thunder teammate Russel Westbrook threw three foul shots during the final seconds of their NBA Playoff game against the Los Angeles Clippers. On May 13th, 2014, the Oklahoma City Thunder beat the Los Angeles Clippers in an NBA Playoff match with three foul shots by Thunder guard Russell Westbrook during the last minute of the game. As Westbrook took his shots on the free throw line, Thunder's small forward and star player Kevin Durant sat down on the basketball court and looked the other way.

In the early hours of the next morning, NBA writer Matt Moore challenged Twitter users to photoshop a picture of Durant seated on the court.

My Next Chapter

On July 4th, 2016, after becoming an unrestricted free agent, Kevin Durant announced via an article entitled My Next Chapter ^[2] in The Players' Tribune that he was joining the Golden State Warriors after having spent his entire previous career with the Oklahoma City Thunder. The move was criticized by NBA fans, players, and commentators, as the Golden State Warriors were already the best team in the NBA and had just broken the regular season win record the previous year by going 73-9. This lead many to believe Durant signed with the Warriors because they were the easiest team for him to be a part of in order to win a championship. After the 2016-17 regular season began, users on /r/nba began posting photoshopped versions of Kevin Durant's picture from the "My Next Chapter" article every time the Warriors lost a game, using the logo of the winning team.

Draymond Green Talking to Kevin Durant

On April 16th, 2017, the Golden State Warriors basketball team played the Portland Trailblazers in the NBA playoffs. During the game, cameras caught player Draymond Green speaking to teammate Kevin Durant. Several hours after the game, on April 17th, Twitter user @TalkWithTone^[2] posted a gif of the talk to Twitter with the caption "Your mum trying to cover you with the blood of Jesus before you leave the house." The tweet received more than 6,900 retweets and 8,300 likes.

ESPYs Reaction

At the 2017 ESPY Awards on July 12th, host Peyton Manning joked at Durant's expense when he said the 2016 United States Olympic Gymnastics team was so dominant, Durant would be joining them next year. The joke referred to Durant's much-criticized move to the already-dominant Golden State Warriors in 2016. After Manning's joke, the camera cut to Durant, who looked unamused.

The joke and Durant's reaction inspired photoshops and jokes on Twitter the following day, and were covered by The Daily Dot.^[3]

Guard Staredown

On April 30th, 2019, during Game 2 of the Western Conference semi-finals between the Rockets and Warriors, Durant was called for a foul in a close fourth quarter. Dejected, Durant walked towards the stands behind the basket. Cameras caught a security guard giving Durant a stern look as he approached the crowd (shown below).

Security guard gives KD a look after KD commits a foul in the 4th pic.twitter.com/U2IQeWp8zs

— The Render (@TheRenderNBA) May 1, 2019

The moment was quickly parodied by Twitter users who were amused by the guard's mean expression. User @Dramadoessports joked that the guard must've been a Rockets or Thunder fan (shown below, left). User @Juniuer joked that the guard was thirsty for Durant, gaining over 30 retweets and 120 likes (shown below, right). Jokes were covered by USA Today.^[4]

Search Interest

External References