Brooklyn Nets star Kevin Durant is no stranger to drawing the ire of fans and past players.
Despite being one of the best talents of his generation, it’s a position Durant frequently finds himself in.
And it was more of the same over the past few weeks.
This week, on an episode of ‘The Big Podcast,’ Shaquille O’Neal weighed in on recent comments by Charles Barkley regarding how Durant was not the “bus driver” during his championship run with the Golden State Warriors.
“Charles Barkley is calling Kevin Durant’s career outside of Golden State an ‘abject failure’ … Do you agree?”@SHAQ: “Yeah. … If you’re the guy and you ain’t get it done, that means you failed.”#TheBigPodcast: https://t.co/1ccPgWJWvs pic.twitter.com/7RiqPAoUDu
— NBA on TNT (@NBAonTNT) September 1, 2022
“Yeah. If you go back and look at his career as the best player and being the leader, it all goes with that,” O’Neal said.
“See, we were there, we saw OKC up 3-1 [over Golden State]. One more game. And when you’re the guy, all the pressure falls on you. A lot of people are talking about the bus driver – Chuck was absolutely right. He [Durant] was not driving the bus in Golden State. You were on the bus, sitting up front.”
Barkley’s original comments caused quite a stir around the NBA.
“He gets mad when we say it, he piggybacked on the Warriors to win his first two championships,” Barkley said.
“But if you go back and look at his career, as the best player and being a leader that all goes with that, he’s been an abject failure. I mean, every time he’s been like the guy who has to be the leader and the best player he has not had success.”
Durant has yet to address O’Neal’s comments, but that is likely because he has bigger fish to fry.
A very prominent adult film star recently made some pretty salacious claims that may or may not involve him.
In that respect, O’Neal’s take is small potatoes.
That said, Durant isn’t one to allow himself to get needled for long.
A new star was born at the U.S. Open. https://t.co/RY1Asda0mC
— Game 7 (@game7__) September 4, 2022
If Barkley and O’Neal keep talking about him, he will respond.
What will that response look like?
Time will tell.
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Jennifer Withers Hoey is a former Business Development Manager who transitioned to writing about sports. With valuable connections all over the West Coast, she has used those contacts to break some of the most interesting stories pertaining to the Portland Trail Blazers, Oregon Ducks, LA Lakers, LA Clippers, Seattle Supersonics (RIP), and more.
