For the coming days, Kevin Durant might be the sweetheart of the USA having won a fourth straight Olympic gold medal. But two months later, the Slim Reaper will resume his normal hostile disposition in the NBA. As a ‘wanted’ man among fans, Durant is labeled as misunderstood by his peers. A large reason was his 2016 free agency decision to join a historic Warriors team. However, while the wildfire keeps growing, KD decides to live in tranquility. Why not defend himself and clean his misjudged image? It’s because he’s never been one to speak out.

While on the show ‘Raising Fame’, his mother Wanda Durant revealed how her son has always been “quiet and reserved”. She admits possibly being an influence on his character since she too drew a firm line and never let anyone shake her balance. Wanda Durant also explained how KD puts everything into his NBA “job”. And at the end of the day, all that concerns him is getting home after a taxing day of diligent work.

“He’s like this is my job. I want to do my job and I want to go home. That’s it. I pour my heart into it, I give it everything and that should be seen by my talent and skillset. But I just want to do my job, be good at my job and go home. I look at it like he has separate space for his life. And he’s okay with it. Why does everybody else get to choose what he does and how he does his life but he doesn’t get to choose for anyone else” she told Sonya Curry and Lucille O’Neal.

But even then, as a mother, watching her son be slandered and ridiculed on a nightly basis is horrific. For Wanda, who alone raised the masterful scorer, it pains even more. So she can’t help but hope her son lets his reasons be known to the NBA community and diminish the poor narrative around him.

“I personally would like him to be a little more open because I hate the narrative they have created around him,” she said.

Kevin Durant thinks he will always be a villain

While Durant won’t speak at length about his legacy, he doesn’t mind putting some aggressive fans in their place. Most recently, he had several early conversations with fans after Team USA’s dramatic win over Serbia. Such a trend is common for the Slim Reaper, who in 2021 admitted to getting a “kick” from responding to fans.

But when it comes to his legacy, he finds himself helpless.

“Once I left to go to the Warriors (in 2016), I figured any logical thing, when it comes to me, it’s out of the window. When it comes to me, people are not going to think in a logical way or simply look at what I’ve done and say that’s it. They gotta add a narrative to it, they gotta push something to discredit me,” he told Shams Charania last year.

Hence, as much as Wanda Durant wants her son to defend himself, Durant doesn’t find it amusing. Rather than entertain a lost battle, he is willing to let his performance place his legacy. If not admired by the millions of fans, the Slim Reaper is aware of the respect his peers have for him. At the end of the day, maybe that’s the legacy Kevin Durant wants for himself.

Do you think there will be a day when KD unravels the true intentions behind some of his bold decisions? Let us know what you think in the comments below.