Not nice KD.
The news is out, Kobe Bryant is retiring. 17-year vet. Phenomenom. Future hall of famer. The list goes on, and media has played a very good part in eloquently rolling out the news on major sites. However, you have certain media sites that chastise Kobe and according to Kevin Durant, he’s had enough. According to Anthony Slater of the NewsOK.com, Kevin Durant stated:
“I did idolize Kobe Bryant. I studied him, wanted to be like him. He was our Michael Jordan. I watched Michael toward the end of his career with the Wizards and I seen that’s what Kobe emerged as the guy for us. I’ve been disappointed this year because you guys (media) treated him like s***. He’s a legend and all I hear is about how bad he’s playing, how bad he’s shooting, time for him to hang it up. You guys treated one of our legends like s*** and I didn’t really like it.
“Hopefully now you can start being nice to him now that he decided to retire after this year. It was sad the way he was getting treated. He had just an amazing career, a guy who changed the game for me as a player mentally and physically. Means so much to the game of basketball. Someone I’m always gonna look to advice for anything. Just a brilliant, brilliant, intelligent man. Sad to see him go. He put his mark on the game.”
Now, Durant has always been critical of media and their mundane comments towards players for the past couple years and today’s comments were no different. The real question is, will the media take lead and celebrate a decorated player such as Kobe or will they continue to “attempt” to deface a glorified athlete such as the Mamba? This whole situation sounds all too familiar in what the media did to MJ in his last days in the league. Hopefully media sites can change the trajectory of the news cycle they are spewing.
