The Side Part: Meditations In An Emergency

Kevin Durant went and got a little existential on us this week. Some people liked it. Others didn’t. I’m cool with Durant doing what he wants. He’s a grown man, and not hurting anybody saying what he was saying. If he wants to get a bit philosophical and thoughtful about the nature of Twitter, and why people really use it, I’m fine with it. Doesn’t affect me any. It’s a break in the day from the normal. That is a good thing. Some folks weren’t really vibing with all that, though. Go check the replies/mentions around the time of his (let’s just call them) questions. Lots of them amount to, “Cool, shut-up” and “Yo, stop.”

Attempting to have perspective on Twitter, a space that exists almost solely to comment on what is happening right now, is sort of an oxymoron in and of itself. And, historically, when we have athletes who try to present themselves as thinkers of any kind, we’re not on board with that. It’s a shock to the system, revolutionizes them in your mind, makes you have to re-think how they are — Kareem reviewing “Girls”, for instance. Seems like more often than not, the style of athlete we’re down with is either a very great, serious ones, or a “funny” one, with not a whole lot in between.

I generally prescribe to the idea that not very often do we get to see a player actually be themselves. I do not blame them for this. I’d be so guarded if I had anything resembling fame. Usually the players with lots of “personality” are players we just think are funny. This is why people incorrectly thought Shaq was funny for years — Big Shaqtus and Big Aristotle and all that. The ability to come up with a clever nickname we take as humor. It took him getting on TNT, seeing him interact with people somewhat frequently, to realize that Shaq just isn’t funny at all. Matt Bonner is funny. Shaq is not. Watch him when Chuck or Kenny try to (and do) get him. He can’t laugh at himself. He’s always gotta do the whole “Alright, alright, okay, just wait” thing, which is tired, and the thing that people without senses of humor do. It’s such a drag to watch. This has little to do with Durant, and has been touched on before, but this ought to be brought up every year until they get rid of him. Shaq’s bringing that show down. Forgive the digression.

Nowadays it’s the guys who bring the unintentional comedy that get a lot of the love. Artest a few years ago, Nick Young, Lance Stephenson. These are the personalities that people get behind, that get gif’d and vined and photoshopped and posted about. All because they give themselves a nickname (see above) or they hold their hands in the air and turnaround to celebrate a shot before seeing if it goes in. For some reason we’re not really comfortable with athletes doing any kind of thinking that isn’t directly related to the sport they’re playing. Any thoughtfulness outside the court or the field is stifled.

Now, I’m not saying Durant was reaching into the depths of the human psyche with these questions. There’s an early scene in Good Will Hunting that isn’t on YouTube where Robin Williams asks his class something to the effect of “What does it mean to trust someone?” and he calls on some real and proper dude who rattles off an answer along the lines of “Because…trust is…life.” Williams responds with a perfectly dry, “Wow…that’s very deep.” Actually, I want to come back to this.

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My coach in college — shouts out to Doug Tolin, who has said “Golly” more than anyone in the history of the world — used to say that a person’s character comes out on the basketball floor. If you’re lazy in real life, you’re going to be lazy when you play. If you don’t trust people in real life, you won’t be able to let go and trust when you play. So on. That seems a little hard and fast and half way flowery — it’s a good thing for a coach to say — but I generally agree with it. I think the closest we really get to seeing what an NBA player is like is by watching how they play, how they interact with people, on the court.

To trust their media personality or the way they are in interviews as the way they are all the time is a little misguided. Who could blame them for not showing their real self to a camera and a nation of folks who don’t really know them? I don’t like talking to strangers. And I get that this is what they signed up for and blah, but that feels like a tired argument. Something we’ve evolved beyond. Why can’t a guy think out loud a little? I know he’s a basketball player, but he’s also more.** *

Back to this. Durant’s tweets did have an air of “Trust is…life” to them. But still. This is a guy — and still a relatively young one, I still think we forget he’s 26 — trying to figure things out, and letting us in on the process. He’s thinking on the way people interact with him. I think that’s a worthwhile thing, and something different for a player of his stature to be doing.

It’s a break in the monotony of constant game analysis, and the vague “We have to play better” buffet of quotes that get trotted out throughout the season. If nothing else, it’s not a promo. He’s not trying to sell me anything. Personally, I’m much more interested in how Durant thinks, than in Kind bars. Post more musings, Kev. I don’t need another energy bar promo muddying up my timeline.