Phoenix Suns star Kevin Durant had a heated exchange with two Dallas Mavericks fans who allegedly called him a slur during the pregame warmups on Tuesday night.
Durant was jogging onto the court when he heard the fans shout “b*tch” at him. Durant then turned around and confronted the fans, who were holding beers and sitting near the front row.
The fans appeared to act innocent and even asked Durant for a high-five or handshake, but the Suns forward was not amused. He had a brief conversation with them before returning to the court.
Mavs fan calls Kevin Durant “a b*tch” and KD pauses to have words.
Security about to kick the fans out when KD comes back to tell them not to kick them out. pic.twitter.com/CTqPnM4T16
— Jonah Javad (@JonahJavad) February 23, 2024
However, Durant showed some compassion when he saw that the security guards were about to eject the fans from the arena. He told the guards to let them stay and watch the game.
Now, a couple of days later, Durant explained why he let mercy prevail over justice and let the fans stay in the arena.
Per The Arizona Republic:
“My thing was like, even though you called me a b*tch as I’m running out with my back turned, people usually do that, call me coward, b*tch with my back turned, and it wasn’t too many people around.
I know you don’t mean that, and I’m not going to get you kicked out because you paid your money for these tickets, you had a couple of drinks, and I understand how people get, but [there are] better ways to try to get my attention and talk to me other than call me a b*itch out my name because you’re protected in these arenas.
I know the people want to pet the animals in the zoo, get close to the animals in the zoo, but once they get close, they realize you’re real human beings, too. So you should treat us like that,” Durant said. “I could’ve had them kicked out. Nah, don’t put that on me. They just called me a b*tch.
They didn’t harm me. They didn’t try to harm me, physically. Let them stay and give them something to think about going forward.”
