Kevin Durant just wants you to ask better questions

There are two sides to the Warriors’ all-star. We saw what happens with the right one.

The same Kevin Durant who lit into a specific reporter a few months back gave a brilliant answer to a series of questions regarding decision-making against a purported mismatch in the Warriors-Clippers series.

The exchange took everything we thought we knew about Durant’s relationship with the media and doused it in lighter fluid. In its place, a phoenix emerged from the ashes, as a thoughtful basketball mind took his time to answer a question in detail. The way Durant broke down his battle with Patrick Beverley is beautiful to watch.

As it turns out, when premier players aren’t caught caught up in free agency or off-court drama and simply want to get to the root of a basketball question, they will provide good answers. Who would’ve thought that?

Durant was asked about Beverley’s defense

Beverley has been one of the most irritating defenders in the NBA his entire career. This postseason, he demanded to be tasked with guarding the league’s (second-) most gifted scorer.

In Game 1, Beverley was so annoying, he and Durant were assessed double technical fouls and ejected in the fourth quarter. In Game 2, Beverley drew multiple offensive fouls that led to Durant fouling out. The Clippers eventually came back from a playoff record 31-point third-quarter deficit to steal a game at Oracle Arena.

Durant on Beverley is a mismatch that could — and one can argue should— be exploited every single time. Durant is a seven-footer with guard skills, while Beverley is listed at 6’1. Durant can stand up straight and look right over him. Of course he can shoot over him every trip.

But when asked why he doesn’t, Durant hedged. That’s not fun basketball, he contended. The Warriors had a nice flow to the game. He said he could shoot 43 percent from the field against a pest like Beverley, but what about his teammates? His goal is to win a game.

“When I get the ball in my spots, well, I’ve got a pest, Patrick Beverley, who’s up underneath me,” he said. “Well I could definitely shoot over the top and score every time if it’s a 1-on-1 situation. But we’ve got a guy that’s dropping and helping, and we’ve got another guy that’s sitting on me, waiting for me to dribble the basketball. If I put the basketball on the floor, I can probably make 43 percent of my shots if I shoot them like that. But that’s not really gonna do anything for us with the outcome of the game, ‘cause we’ve got a nice flow. Everybody’s touching the rock, and everybody’s shooting and scoring.”

The moment showed a new side to Durant, one that is rarely seen by the public. His response went viral on social media, the same way a cryptic quote about free agency might. Hell, I’m even writing about it right now.

“So I’m not gonna get in the way of the game because I wanna have a little back-and-forth with Patrick Beverley. I’m Kevin Durant. You know who I am. Y'all know who I am.”

The gem of that quote was at the end

“I’m Kevin Durant. You know who I am. Y’all know who I am.”

Durant knows he could get a basket whenever he wants. He knows, if he really wanted to, he could shred the Clippers’ defense to pieces and shoot a respectable field goal percentage doing so. He knows he’s in a different stratosphere than Beverley.

Yet Durant still respects Beverley’s craft:

“When he runs up on me, and grabs me and holds me. I don’t mind it,” he said later. “That’s how he makes his money. That’s how he feeds his family. But if I throw something back, then let us play.”

Some basketball players don’t want to talk Xs and Os. They’d rather talk about how difficult it is to find clothes that fit, or how they’ve changed their diet over the years.

But others, like Durant, don’t mind answering questions about the actual game when in the right mood, as long as the questions aren’t stupid.

Moral of the story: don’t ask a dumb question and you might learn something.