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Social Media Drama Involving Prominent People in the Sports World

By Derrick Edafe, Staff Writer

Nets player Kevin Durant recently has gotten into a controversy on social media with actor and comedian Micheal Rapaport. 

Rapaport took to social media to share screenshots of a private conversation had between the two via direct messages. The conversation revolved around a tweet Rappaport made in December of 2020 making fun of Durant after a post game interview he was a part of.

Rapaport had tweeted, “KD seemed deeply in his feelings with the @NBAonTNT crew after the game DAMNIT he’s super sensitive about everything.” 

Durant later responded with a series of messages that contained offensive language, along with comments that social media users have called homophobic and misogynistic.

Rapaport said the situation was not as bad as initially reported. 

“Those are threats that were made over and over and over. It’s been going on for months. On Tuesday of this week, he caught me on a bad day. That being said, in my opinion, the whole situation got blown out of proportion,” he said.

The NBA later fined Durant fifty thousand dollars, and Durant later came out and apologized. 

“I’m sorry that people saw that language I used,” he said. “That’s not really what I want people to see and hear from me, but hopefully, I can move past it and get back out on the floor.”

This isn’t the first social media controversy Rapaport has been involved in. Rapaport has engaged in several arguments with Bar Stools founder Dave Portnoy, and was criticized for making fun of Ariana Grande’s appearance in 2018.

Junior business major Tosin Oyekanmi had some thoughts about the situation.

 “In this day and age, everyone’s a troll, and everyone has something to say. I think Micheal Rapaport and Kevin Durant were just trolling or joking around,” he said. “Rapaport is known for his friendly banter with many famous celebrities and also his rants and trolls on former President Donald Trump, so this isn’t out of the ordinary for him.”

Sophomore pre-med and pre-law major Noah Anderson thinks both Durant and Rapaport could have handled the situation differently, and that neither of them are in the right.

 “The NBA did what they had to for the way KD handled that, but I don’t think Micheal Rapaport needs to release the direct messages if he really felt attacked or threatened, he should’ve sought authorities and not viewers,” he said.

Kevin Durant recently got back on the court for the Nets and hopes to continue dominating the Eastern Conference and have an excellent closing to the end of the season.

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