on the Kevin Durant Tweet: Racist Suspect Reporter says no one would ever, ever say anything Racist in Utah at a Jazz Game
/Remember "a Black person cannot be the victim in a white supremacy society. The Black individual is always at fault regardless of who initiated the conflict." [MORE]
Here we go again …
Oklahoma City superstar Kevin Durant became the latest in a string of NBA players to shoot fish in the barrel known as EnergySolutions Arena when he complained last week about hearing inappropriate comments from Jazz fans.
Not long after the Jazz upset the Thunder, 109-94, on Feb. 12, Durant used the social media network Twitter to tattle on fans sitting behind the OKC bench.
He has since removed the Tweet from his timeline, but, of course, screen shots of the message insure it’ll live forever on the Internet.
“I love playing in Utah,” he wrote, “just upset at how the fans treated us behind our bench. … we don’t deserve that … but I’m movin on.”
First things first: I’m glad Durant deleted the Tweet because it made him look pretty silly. And I’m glad he decided to move on.
Personally, I like Durant and always have. Over the past couple of seasons he has tried to toughen up his image from the more gentle, easy-going young man who first came into the league back in 2007. Understand, Durant wasn’t a pushover even when he entered the league as skinny teenager after one season at Texas. While he’s always been lanky and thin, he’s also always been a fierce competitor, a dazzling offensive player and a nightmare of a matchup for most NBA small forwards.
When he signed a long-term contract with the small-market Thunder it sent a message to fans, essentially saying, “I know who I am and I don’t need to feed my ego with big-market adulation.”
I think even Jazz fans were appreciative of that.
If you ask me, Durant’s still one of the NBA’s good guys. But, a few years ago he came to a crossroads when his personality clashed with OKC point guard Russell Westbrook’s bad boy reputation.
In order to assert himself, Durant needed to harden his image a little.
Frankly, I’ve got no problem with it. In fact, I applaud him for doing so. After all, an NBA locker room is a notoriously macho domain, not suitable for the weak or faint of heart.
OK, so we’ve established Durant is a bit more cantankerous than he used to be. In fact, during last week’s Jazz game he was whistled for a flagrant foul when he hip-checked Utah’s Alec Burks. Turns out it was the first flagrant of his career.
The ESA was rocking pretty loudly by the time Durant fouled Burks and it only got louder.
This hardly comes as breaking news. The arena long ago developed a reputation for being one of the loudest places in the NBA when the Jazz are playing well.
And that brings me to my second point: I’ve grown terribly weary of players complaining about Jazz fans, often implying they go too far or somehow cross the line of decency.
Look, I’m not saying Durant’s tweet was anything more than a complaint about being heckled by a few fans sitting behind OKC’s bench. However, other players — and media, for that matter — have come through town and complained about Utah fans’ boorish behavior, even going so far as to claim they heard racist taunts.
While I’m not denying the existence of racism here in Utah or anywhere else for that matter, I’m stating definitively: In seven-plus seasons of covering Jazz games in Salt Lake City, I’ve never once heard a racial slur.
Now that I think about it, in more than 20 years of covering sporting events in Utah, I’ve never once heard a racial slur.
I did, however, cover the 1998 NCAA Final Four in San Antonio when North Carolina’s Makhtar Ndiaye accused University of Utah forward Britton Johnsen of calling him the N-word.
A day later, Ndiaye retracted the statement and admitted he lied because he was upset about losing.
My point in bringing up that old story is not to imply racism doesn’t exist, but rather to illustrate that our state is, in many ways, an easy target. After all, it’s not considered culturally diverse, nor seen as particularly sophisticated by outside media.
Ironically, people who espouse those beliefs are, in their own way, practicing the age-old art of stereotyping.
Personally, I don’t think Durant heard anything racist or, for that matter, anything that was even inflammatory; nor do I think he was implying he did. But when I saw his tweet, I couldn’t help but be reminded of past complaints complete with unsubstantiated allegations.
I couldn’t help but think, here we go again.
Jim Burton is the Standard-Examiner’s sports columnist. He also covers the Utah Jazz and the NBA. He can be reached at 801-625-4265 or at jburton@standard.net. He tweets at http://twitter.com/jmb247
