Absent from All-Star Weekend due to injury, Kevin Durant still animated it with a controversial exit on the Dunk Contest and Mac McClung. Exit on which the star of the Suns recently bounced, much criticized for the latter!
He who has never participated in the Dunk Contest in his career, will however have been one of its main protagonists this year. By deciding to publicly attack the competition and the presence of Mac McClung, Kevin Durant triggered a bad buzz that he would have done well. His words obviously landed in the ears of the young winner, who reacted to them with Shams Charania and The Athletic :
As I grew up, I learned not to let myself be too affected by the positive or the negative. Personally, I always try to be positive, not critical. I’m not going to blame Kevin Durant for saying that. I will always have great respect for the people who inspire me. There is no hate on my side. Sometimes I can receive it, but I will always stay positive and try to get something out of it.
Kevin Durant calms the game vis-à-vis Mac McClung
Delivered before the event, this speech by Kevin Durant necessarily aged badly, since McClung flew over the debates. Internet users were therefore the first to tease the Slim Reaper, and to demand an apology on behalf of the rear. Apologies that did indeed end up presenting the main interested party. In his podcast The ETCsthe latter indeed wished to clarify his words, while apologizing to “Mac Attack”:
“Why do people think I was hating on Mac McClung?” @KDTrey5 wants to clarify his comments about @McclungMac and the dunk contest. ???? pic.twitter.com/IluFD5PmpJ
— Boardroom (@boardroom) February 28, 2023
Why did people think I was going after Mac McClung? All this while I was rather pointing the finger at the fact that the NBA had to go get Mac McClung to revive the Dunk Contest! Mac, it wasn’t against you at all. It was more of an attack on the NBA. I’m sorry if you felt you took a stray bullet. We even said that Mac was going to do the show and that he was an incredible athlete!
Wishing to castigate the league for its inability to offer a set of big names for the Dunk Contest, KD would therefore have inadvertently suggested that he was disrespecting McClung. A version that should ultimately suit the neo-Sixer, obviously not the resentful type. Let’s hope that the two men can discuss it very soon in person, on the sidelines of a duel between Philadelphia and Phoenix!
Lambasted for his so-called murderous words towards Mac McClung, Kevin Durant assures that he was in no way targeting the new dunk king. What undoubtedly put an end to this soap opera as unexpected as it is stormy!
