KD with yet another social media blunder

[Ogaju]

I'm guessing Durant isn't going to see any punishment. If you're going to be awful to someone, just be awful to someone who's even more awful. It seems like everyone is sick of Rappaport now so no one cares what KD said to him.

As for what was said: words have no inherent meaning or significance, only the meaning and significance we give them. In our culture, white people and people of color are treated differently and so the idea of whiteness is going to have different significance and a different meaning than talking about skin color of a group that was marginalized based on the color of their skin.

Context, including historical context, does matter.

This. Calling a fully grown black man with children and grand children of his own ‘boy’ was common place in America. So you are right the historical context of language is important. We have a long way to go in this country. A lot of people are prejudiced without even knowing it. A good practice that should be taught is not to make conclusions about people just because of a pre-conceived notion about their race.

[Big333223]

I'm guessing Durant isn't going to see any punishment. If you're going to be awful to someone, just be awful to someone who's even more awful. It seems like everyone is sick of Rappaport now so no one cares what KD said to him.

As for what was said: words have no inherent meaning or significance, only the meaning and significance we give them. In our culture, white people and people of color are treated differently and so the idea of whiteness is going to have different significance and a different meaning than talking about skin color of a group that was marginalized based on the color of their skin.

Context, including historical context, does matter.

The insults about being pale aren’t really the point.

Rather, it’s that Durant, when reaching into his  Neanderthal brain, came out with the worst insult he could think of: being gay and engaging in homosexual activities.

I appreciate you noting the difference. As someone who is gay and played a lot of sports growing up, I can tell you these types of insults are pretty commonplace amongst peers. As I mentioned earlier, I believe what Durant said leans more ignorant than outright homophobic (trust me, slurs directed at you specifically because you are gay are more alarming than people using words they were taught as insults), but it doesn't make it okay. Constantly having your 'masculinity' questioned with these types of words/phrases can be taxing and takes a toll on you growing up. I went through a little bit of a tough guy phase in my late teens/early 20s (nothing all-out) because I thought I had a little extra to prove.

I will say again that I don't think the 'pasty white' comments are okay, but they don't have the same impact as the others. I wish the dude would just legit apologize and move on. Really disappointed to see his response.

100% to both.

[byennie]

The problem with a players-run league is the same as with an owners-run league: it depends on which players and which owners.

Right now Brooklyn is the epicenter. Kyrie and KD as the face of the league makes me want to find another sport. I find them simply insufferable. Harden isn't really helping, but I can live with debates about shooting too many stepback 3s. At least that's on-the-court stuff. Every time I watch Kyrie pontificate with the gravitas of a delusional teenager, or KD getting into Instagram spats, frankly, I could watch reality TV to get that level of entertainment. Hard pass.

Meanwhile, there are players that get less credit than they deserve. Dinnwiddie is one of my LinkedIn connections, because he's a smart savvy guy who's into crypto. But he's not an MVP candidate, so people barely know his name outside of dedicated fans. This isn't an indictment on the players in general, there are many in the league who are thoroughly underrated as "just athletes".

I'm not sure where I'm going with this, except that I really, really dislike the Nets these days.

[Who]

Oops, posted in the wrong thread. Ignore this post.

[kraidstar]

The problem with a players-run league is the same as with an owners-run league: it depends on which players and which owners.

Right now Brooklyn is the epicenter. Kyrie and KD as the face of the league makes me want to find another sport. I find them simply insufferable. Harden isn't really helping, but I can live with debates about shooting too many stepback 3s. At least that's on-the-court stuff. Every time I watch Kyrie pontificate with the gravitas of a delusional teenager, or KD getting into Instagram spats, frankly, I could watch reality TV to get that level of entertainment. Hard pass.

Meanwhile, there are players that get less credit than they deserve. Dinnwiddie is one of my LinkedIn connections, because he's a smart savvy guy who's into crypto. But he's not an MVP candidate, so people barely know his name outside of dedicated fans. This isn't an indictment on the players in general, there are many in the league who are thoroughly underrated as "just athletes".

I'm not sure where I'm going with this, except that I really, really dislike the Nets these days.

You're touching on what is really an alarming problem with the league here. the problem isn't just that some of these guys are divas or jerks. It's that they get rewarded for being divas and jerks.

The league increasingly thrives on schoolyard/reality TV drama.

Kyrie hijacked an entire season here on the Boston Celtics. The media was swarming the whole time, feeding on Kyrie's drama and negativity. The league and its sponsors made millions on that drama.

Most infamous was the all-star game, where Kyrie and Durant were in a hallway, discussing the Knicks' two max slots. In plain view. At first I didn't believe they could be so absurd to be hashing out such a huge issue on camera in a hallway. It looked exactly like a scene you'd see on a WWE broadcast.

But it was apparently real. Not long after, Durant and Harden are in New York, and Brooklyn is getting star calls like they had 12 Michael Jordans on their roster. ESPN has daily articles documenting their drama. The TNT guys inevitably delve into it.

It is a league of heroes and heels. Right now Brooklyn are heels, but they serve a larger purpose. They grab headlines and eyeballs, and Adam Silver is laughing his way to the bank. Pencil them in for the Finals right now.

The NBA isn't about basketball, and hasn't been since the 1980's. It is a sad thing.

[Ed Monix]

You're touching on what is really an alarming problem with the league here. the problem isn't just that some of these guys are divas or jerks. It's that they get rewarded for being divas and jerks.

The league increasingly thrives on schoolyard/reality TV drama.

Kyrie hijacked an entire season here on the Boston Celtics. The media was swarming the whole time, feeding on Kyrie's drama and negativity. The league and its sponsors made millions on that drama.

Most infamous was the all-star game, where Kyrie and Durant were in a hallway, discussing the Knicks' two max slots. In plain view. At first I didn't believe they could be so absurd to be hashing out such a huge issue on camera in a hallway. It looked exactly like a scene you'd see on a WWE broadcast.

But it was apparently real. Not long after, Durant and Harden are in New York, and Brooklyn is getting star calls like they had 12 Michael Jordans on their roster. ESPN has daily articles documenting their drama. The TNT guys inevitably delve into it.

It is a league of heroes and heels. Right now Brooklyn are heels, but they serve a larger purpose. They grab headlines and eyeballs, and Adam Silver is laughing his way to the bank. Pencil them in for the Finals right now.

The NBA isn't about basketball, and hasn't been since the 1980's. It is a sad thing.

TP.

Perfectly said, the days of real journalism with the likes of Bob Ryan and Jackie Mac are dead.

A recent snippet of a quote from Stephen. A Smith regarding what Durant said to Michael Rapaport, “I think he’s (Durant) the kind of person who’s heart is in the right place, and just wants to express himself.” I’ll remind everyone that Durant said he was going to spit in Rapaport’s mouth and talked about his wife.

[ManchesterCelticsFan]

When I was in middle/high school, it was extremely common for guys to rib on each other for being gay or how you look (not necessarily skin color). That was the low hanging fruit way, mindless way of insulting someone, in a way designed to get under your skin. I never thought of it anymore than just meaningless talk, BS insults, etc. This is how KD and Rapoport look to me, the only difference is they were careless/impulsive/ignorant/dumb enough to type it out for everyone on social media to see and potentially take it out of context.

[gift]

I'm guessing Durant isn't going to see any punishment. If you're going to be awful to someone, just be awful to someone who's even more awful. It seems like everyone is sick of Rappaport now so no one cares what KD said to him.

As for what was said: words have no inherent meaning or significance, only the meaning and significance we give them. In our culture, white people and people of color are treated differently and so the idea of whiteness is going to have different significance and a different meaning than talking about skin color of a group that was marginalized based on the color of their skin.

Context, including historical context, does matter.

The insults about being pale aren’t really the point.

Rather, it’s that Durant, when reaching into his  Neanderthal brain, came out with the worst insult he could think of: being gay and engaging in homosexual activities.

This is what is really interesting to me. It's not that Durant tried to come up with the worst insult possible to another human that bothers us most. It's that the worst insult possible in his mind was an insult to a certain demographic. The reason this is worse than just insulting a person with a more acceptable wording/phrasing is the historical and societal context. We've acknowledged in this thread that there does exist a double standard and that standard is mostly acceptable because of marginalization of minorities and/or oppression, discrimination, violence to those vulnerable to power dynamic imbalance. But the ultimate minority is the individual, and the most vulnerable entity to a group oppression, discrimination or violence is the individual. Yet, when an individual is insulted as an individual, we care little (or at least less). When an individual is insulted in a way that offends a group, we take offense and advocate punishment.

So on one hand, we don't care as much about the most true form of vulnerable human (e.g. the target of an insult), but more about the vulnerable human that has gained some amount of power via group identity (e.g. the offended group)--but not so much power as to be seen as having the upper hand in any power dynamic in society (e.g. the pale patriarchy).

[Donoghus]

There you go.

Adrian Wojnarowski
@wojespn
·
6m
NBA is fining Kevin Durant $50,000 for social exchange with actor, sources tell ESPN.

[Roy H.]

There you go.

Adrian Wojnarowski
@wojespn
·
6m
NBA is fining Kevin Durant $50,000 for social exchange with actor, sources tell ESPN.

[Ed Monix]

There you go.

Adrian Wojnarowski
@wojespn
·
6m
NBA is fining Kevin Durant $50,000 for social exchange with actor, sources tell ESPN.

That’s 1.25% of his NBA salary, obviously not including his endorsements.

I’m also curious given the NBA usually donated these fines to charities, if it’s tax deductible for Durant.

[Donoghus]

There you go.

Adrian Wojnarowski
@wojespn
·
6m
NBA is fining Kevin Durant $50,000 for social exchange with actor, sources tell ESPN.

That’s 1.25% of his NBA salary, obviously not including his endorsements.

I’m also curious given the NBA usually donated these fines to charities, if it’s tax deductible for Durant.

It's not tax deductible anymore.  They used to be, though.

[nickagneta]

There you go.

Adrian Wojnarowski
@wojespn
·
6m
NBA is fining Kevin Durant $50,000 for social exchange with actor, sources tell ESPN.

That’s 1.25% of his NBA salary, obviously not including his endorsements.

I’m also curious given the NBA usually donated these fines to charities, if it’s tax deductible for Durant.

Slight correction.....that's 0.125% of his salary

Which equates to a $62 fine for someone making $50000 a year.

Pathetic fine.

[Ed Monix]

There you go.

Adrian Wojnarowski
@wojespn
·
6m
NBA is fining Kevin Durant $50,000 for social exchange with actor, sources tell ESPN.

That’s 1.25% of his NBA salary, obviously not including his endorsements.

I’m also curious given the NBA usually donated these fines to charities, if it’s tax deductible for Durant.

Slight correction.....that's 0.125% of his salary

Even worse lol

Thanks for the correction, fast math has never been my strong suit.

[Ogaju]

How does fining Durant provide a solution to an insidious problem. Like I said before, ‘rinse and repeat’.