Kyrie and Durant should be likable. Why aren’t they?

[Donoghus]

Contrast those two with Lebron.  Am I correct that that he’s generally perceived as less of a dink?

To most, I would agree.  However, the Clay Travis' of the world have been really pushing an anti-Lebron slant to a certain segment of society.

[Roy H.]

Contrast those two with Lebron.  Am I correct that that he’s generally perceived as less of a dink?

To most, I would agree.  However, the Clay Travis' of the world have been really pushing an anti-Lebron slant to a certain segment of society.

Yeah.  I think that LeBron is too reactionary in his politics sometimes, but I think his heart is probably in the right place.

[RPGenerate]

Judging from what I've heard from lebron, he's not much better than Kyrie as a person. He's just better at keeping his mouth shut, in contrast to Kyrie spouting off weird garbage every 5 minutes.

[Roy H.]

Judging from what I've heard from lebron, he's not much better than Kyrie as a person. He's just better at keeping his mouth shut, in contrast to Kyrie spouting off weird garbage every 5 minutes.

That alone makes him significantly more likable in my book.

[jpotter33]

The Golden State thing did it for me with KD. I think he was likable beforehand, but the whole “if you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em” philosophy for someone who is supposedly an all-time great just rubbed me the wrong way, as well as the fact that he became super arrogant afterwards when it was such a weak move. Say what you want about Lebron creating a superteam in Miami, but he didn’t just join the Celtics when he couldn’t beat them in the playoffs.

As for Kyrie, how much time do you got? The biggest thing with him is his arrogant, faux-intellectual persona. He presents himself as this deep, philosophical intellectual, but really he’s just a moody malcontent with sophomoric level opinions on trendy topics who happens to be rich and have a platform due to being good at the game of basketball. He reminds me of the stereotypical pretentious philosophy undergrad who thinks he’s so much smarter than his peers, but is really just pretentious and about as deep as a bath. Also the fact that he straight up quit and didn’t show up for us in the playoffs is a major factor in my dislike of him.

[bdm860]

Is it just social media that amplifies the stuff?  If Larry and magic played today, what media and social media pick a part all of their faults until they were hated?

I think it's absolutely social media that amplifies it.  Also the fact that neither Durant or Kyrie have that superstar level charisma that some players (like Magic, Jordan, Shaq) have.

And I don't think Larry and Magic would be hated, heck they might even be more liked (I can picture Larry talking trash on Twitter gaining him even more of a following).  But I'm sure there's some guys who would be, probably guys like Kareem or Rick Barry, who were supposedly seen as 2 of the bigger, insecure jerks in their playing days.  No doubt there's guys like Kyrie/Durant in every era.

[PhoSita]

As for Kyrie, how much time do you got? The biggest thing with him is his arrogant, faux-intellectual persona. He presents himself as this deep, philosophical intellectual, but really he’s just a moody malcontent with sophomoric level opinions on trendy topics who happens to be rich and have a platform due to being good at the game of basketball. He reminds me of the stereotypical pretentious philosophy undergrad who thinks he’s so much smarter than his peers, but is really just pretentious and about as deep as a bath. Also the fact that he straight up quit and didn’t show up for us in the playoffs is a major factor in my dislike of him.

100%

He totally has that "sophomore philosophy major hanging around the study lounge" vibe

[pearljammer10]

Judging from what I've heard from lebron, he's not much better than Kyrie as a person. He's just better at keeping his mouth shut, in contrast to Kyrie spouting off weird garbage every 5 minutes.

That alone makes him significantly more likable in my book.

This is a huge piece of it.

[Kiorrik]

It's really hard to care about someone when they believe and promote flat earth nonsense. That's literally going out of your way to make people dumber, and more susceptible/prone to other such nonsense.

I kinda don't mind Durant. He just seems jaded. Which is fair.

[JBcat]

Durant's a thin-skinned, rabbit-eared, petty person who didn't help himself by ditching OKC to go to GSW of all places.  Essentially, walking into championship the cheap way. 

Kyrie? Well, where do I even begin?

I may be in the minority but those OKC teams with Westbrook and Durant were ugly to watch, with my turn your turn iso ball.  From a pure basketball standpoint watching those Warriors teams with Durant for a team that preaches ball movement was a lot of fun to watch basketball played at the highest level. 
 
Also it’s not like Durant is the one and only player to leave a team for a better situation. 

[Atzar]

I don't have a problem with Durant.  He strikes me as insecure, and his tendency to argue with twitter trolls is silly, but if fighting with trolls on the internet is one of the worst things you do then you're alright. 

I don't like Kyrie at all, though.  He comes across as an arrogant, privileged diva. 

[Celtics4ever]

Contrast those two with Lebron.  Am I correct that that he’s generally perceived as less of a dink?

That is really low bar to measure up too.

[Moranis]

Contrast those two with Lebron.  Am I correct that that he’s generally perceived as less of a dink?

To most, I would agree.  However, the Clay Travis' of the world have been really pushing an anti-Lebron slant to a certain segment of society.

Yeah.  I think that LeBron is too reactionary in his politics sometimes, but I think his heart is probably in the right place.

I think that is a big difference.  Lebron is genuinely a good person whose heart is the right place.  He legitimately cares about his community and does so much good not only because he can but mostly because he really does want to give back and help those who came from where he came from but without the super human athletic gifts. 

To me, the bigger difference though is Lebron isn't a phoney.  He isn't a fake.  He is who he is.  Sure he crafts his image, but he doesn't create fake twitter accounts to argue with people.  He doesn't pontificate about things he knows little about to make sure everyone knows he is smart.  He is quite simply real.  That isn't Durant or Irving.  They are as phoney and fake as they came.  Durant, in particular, created this public image that is the exact opposite of who he actually is.  You could see it in Oklahoma City, but it only amplified in Golden State and has reached epic levels in Brooklyn.  Irving is really really odd, which I don't think makes him be all that likeable.  Couple that with how many times he has quit on his teams, including earlier this year, and he is just hard to like.  He isn't that eccentric uncle that everyone likes, he is the eccentric uncle that lives down the street in the run down house that just scares people.

[johnnygreen]

Durant's a thin-skinned, rabbit-eared, petty person who didn't help himself by ditching OKC to go to GSW of all places.  Essentially, walking into championship the cheap way. 

Kyrie? Well, where do I even begin?

I may be in the minority but those OKC teams with Westbrook and Durant were ugly to watch, with my turn your turn iso ball.  From a pure basketball standpoint watching those Warriors teams with Durant for a team that preaches ball movement was a lot of fun to watch basketball played at the highest level. 
 
Also it’s not like Durant is the one and only player to leave a team for a better situation.

LOL. You must have hated this year's Celtics team.

[johnnygreen]

I used to like Durant, when he played in OKC. I also liked watching Golden State before Durant arrived, as they were a fun young team with great ball movement. I wonder if everyone one involved between Durant and Golden State thought it was the perfect marriage from a fan’s perspective too. Unfortunately, it was the complete opposite. Since then, I hate everything about Golden State and Durant, who came off as tone deaf and selfish, and belittled the purity of what it means to win a title.