The Evolution of Kevin Durant

Kevin Durant is changing. Up until the last year's MVP speech, Durant was the face of the NBA. Kevin Durant, the ultimate good guy. A person of utmost humility and respect. He not only is the best player around, he is not arrogant nor does he smack talk others. His brand and image oozed of niceness and I would have never thought he would change into this new persona. For gods sake, Durant is the epitome of a nice guy. What's happening to Kevin Durant is not only interesting, it's completely unexpected and fun to watch. Here is a recollection of events I found in chronological order:

Nov 2014 
Kevin Durant calling Dwight Howard a pussy. At first I surprised because that's not very KD-like. But I gave him a pass since it seems to be a meme for everyone to call Dwight a pussy.

Feb 2015
Kevin Durant shows us his new attitude.


Here is KD taunting Chris Paul telling him "you're still down 20 points homie."


Here is KD flexing his ego by saying "I'm a bad motherfucker."


And here we have KD raging, and committing a flagrant 1 foul.


And here is some fresh beef on social media:

Congrats Mr. Thunder, such a honor to play alongside you @nickcollison4
— Kevin Durant (@KDTrey5) February 3, 2015

Dude who averages 3 pts & 3 rebs gets 2-year/$8M extension. No wonder they won't make the playoffs.
— Chris Palmer (@ChrisPalmerNBA) February 3, 2015

@ChrisPalmerNBA means a lot coming from a dude who got fired for being a dumbass
— Kevin Durant (@KDTrey5) February 3, 2015

This is hilarious! KD is known to be supportive of both his teammates and his coach. It's not uncommon these days for high profile folks to start shit on Twitter, but KD!?


Here's the latest crapshoot: KD finally breaks down his facade and shows us a glimpse of his true self. To quote:

"You guys really don’t know shit. To be honest, man, I’m only here talking to y’all because I have to. So I really don’t care. Y’all not my friends. You’re going to write what you want to write. You’re going to love us one day and hate us the next. That’s a part of it. So I just learn how to deal with y’all. My first few years in the league, I was just finding myself. I think most of the time, I reacted based off of what everybody else wanted and how they viewed me as a person. I am just learning to be myself, not worrying about what everybody else says, I am going to make mistakes. I just want to show kids out here that athletes, entertainers, whoever, so-called celebrities, we aren't robots. We go through emotions and go through feelings and I am just trying to express mine and try to help people along the way. I am not going to sit here and tell you that I am just this guy that is programmed to say the right stuff all the time and politically correct answers. I am done with that. I am just trying to be me and continue to grow as a man." - Kevin Durant to the media

Conclusion
What does this all mean? Kevin Durant is done being a nice guy. For the first part of his career he was a nice guy, and I think he was spoon fed by his marketing team to be a politically correct, restrained, and nice individual. But what he just told us right now is that he is fed up being someone he's not. I applaud you Kevin Durant. Stand up for yourself. You aren't fooling anyone with your facade. Break down this mister nice guy that your agents created for you. Learn from Westbrook my friend, he executes. I mean sure, you won't be liked by everybody anymore, but who cares about that? Look at Kobe Bryant, people love him and people hate him. But if you're well liked by all, you will be loved by none. I think it's ten times more memorable for us if Kevin Durant was a badass rather than some pushover who never did anything. I think as the season progresses, we'll see more and more of the new KD. No one wants to see a boring, bland, nice guy. Cheers to the new, edgy Kevin Durant.

You da REAL MVP