"Go Run Full Speed For The First Time In Your Life Then Come Have a Convo About Basketball" - Kevin Durant Casually Went From Cooking Serbia On The Court To Now Cooking Randoms On Twitter

Jesse D. Garrabrant. Getty Images.

After watching Kevin Durant without any sort of warm up to the Olympics go out and immediately destroy Serbia yesterday

I don't think it's a stretch to suggest he's the greatest Olympic basketball player of all time. Maybe Melo held onto that title for a while, but at this point I think KD has that title locked up for good. He's their all time leading scorer, he was a monster in their Gold Medal run in Tokyo, and then you add in yesterday's performance and I'm not sure how anyone could debate that claim.

The beauty of Durant of course isn't just that fact that he's a killer on the court. As he's shown us time and time again, he's just as lethal off it. In fact, he may be better at burying randoms on Twitter than he is destroying the rest of the world at basketball. Sure some may think it's lame that he's so online, but not me. KD is no different from us in that regard, and to me that's the whole point of social media. It puts us all on the same level, and sometimes if you're a random and you find yourself trying to explain how to play basketball to KEVIN FREAKING DURANT, sometimes he's going to drop the hammer down and all you can do is take it.

Today's topic of choice was the FIBA rules vs NBA rules debate. Nothing all that new or crazy, it's something that always pops up during any sort of international competition.

As you can see, things started off rather civil and respectful. I actually agree there are some aspects of FIBA that I wish would translate over to the NBA. I like playing the ball off the rim, I like how there are fewer timeouts, and I especially love how FIBA refs don't fall for foul baiting bullshit. Just adopting that change alone would make a world of difference to the NBA game.

Because this is Twitter, of course things couldn't just stop there. 

Alright, here's where things start to go off the rails. I'm of the belief when it comes to playing basketball and different styles, a player like Kevin Durant has a Ph.D on the subject. Will that stop randoms on the internet? Of course not

At this point, you should have known what was coming. There's only so much KD is going to take when engaging in a Twitter back-and-forth, so it's no surprise what came next

Now unfortunately for KD, I have to deduct points here. I needed to include this screenshot because KD deleted the tweet, which is an awful look when talking shit online. If you're going to tweet it, own it. The second you delete it you lose points, so I can't support that move. The burn itself? A+. That's some vintage KD, sort of like his jumper we saw against Serbia, it's an unstoppable weapon. 

Perhaps he deleted it because he meant "full speed" like a full speed pick up game, or maybe he meant "full speed" as in go get some cardio in, but either way, you have to leave it up in my opinion. 

One of the best parts of these interactions is the double down that usually follows by these randoms.

What's funny here is this idea of "random basketball" isn't all that new. Shit, the 2024 Celtics just completed one of the most dominant seasons in NBA history by playing this way. The Warriors were a dynasty playing this way. Read and react, drive and kick, those are all "random basketball" situations that utilize Xs and Os but are not "sets". Playing free and being able to make decisions on the fly is crucial in today's NBA, and the teams that do it best seem to find the most success. 

But that's the beauty of Twitter. There will always be someone out there to tell a player like Kevin Durant that he actually doesn't understand basketball or that his idea of how to play is wrong. It's certainly one way to go about things, but just don't be surprised when you find yourself on the wrong end of a KD tweet. He's already told us he's not going to hold back, and frankly every time he does it makes me like him more and more.