Kevin Durant Responds to Phil Jackson's Criticism

Posted By Eric Freeman

Yesterday, we noted how Phil Jackson is already starting to make noise about Kevin Durant's superstar calls, as if a young player shouldn't be capable of earning the respect of the league's referees until he walks through the fires of the playoffs and comes out on the other side a better man. I'm pretty sure it's like those old commercials for the Marines.

Now Durant has fired back at the Zen Master with a defense of his treatment. From Darnell Mayberry of The Oklahoman:
"If you watch our games, you wouldn’t question it. The NBA should put us on national TV more, I guess.” When asked whether Jackson’s comment fired him up more, Durant, "Yeah, it does.”

"Because it’s taking away from what I do,” Durant said. "That’s a part of my game, getting to the free-throw line and being aggressive. If you say that I get superstar calls or I get babied by the refs, that’s just taking away from how I play. That’s disrespectful to me. I don’t disrespect nobody in this league. I respect every coach, every player, everybody. I never say anything bad about anybody else or question why they do this or do that. So for them to say that about me, I don’t even want to use no foul language.
I would hope that it's obvious that one doesn't win the scoring title by accident or conspiracy, and that Durant is actually pretty fantastic at getting to the line. But when you're an up-and-comer, especially one who isn't on ESPN or TNT every week, it's hard to get credit for what you do from the rest of the league.

Durant has earned the calls he gets, because he's an elite scorer who can fill the basket in just about every way possible. Even if the Thunder aren't on TV very often, the rest of the league should know that, just based on the handful of times they've played OKC this season.

However, it's also worth keeping in mind that distrust of superstars getting to the line is a constant suspicion, even for players who you'd think would have convinced the rest of the league of their greatness. Remember a few years ago, when the Jazz and their fans claimed Kobe Bryant was getting to the line too much? That uproar occurred even though Kobe was taking as much contact as any non-big man in the league.

Perhaps the real message of this story is that Durant will need to develop a thicker skin, because these comments from the opposition won't go away any time soon. It's nothing personal, just another attempt by Phil Jackson to get any edge he can in the postseason.