Kevin Durant Defends Michael Jordan’s Competitiveness on Twitter After People Speculate Whether M.J. Was Truly “Happy”

Kevin Durant is a known Twitter lover, whether it be on his account or fake ones designed solely to defend himself. And today he hopped on the social media platform and found himself in the middle of a Last Dance-inspired dissection of Michael Jordan’s “happiness.” The original discussion was posited on Monday by Action Network’s Matt Moore:

A day later, Kevin Durant waded into the fray with his thoughts:

Confucius would be proud of Kevin Durant’s ability to propose insightful hypothetical questions. People tried to clarify the point and Durant didn’t buy in:

Moore would attempt to illuminate his point:

And then there were other people’s attempts to simplify the point … only to completely lose K.D. when they end up comparing M.J.’s title wins to Marc Gasol’s:

Shocking that the guy who compares Marc Gasol to Michael Jordan has the handle @badtweetsonline. Durant capped off his argument with a little shot across the bow that’s similar to his previous takes on “blog boys”:

If you know Twitter, you know how the game goes. This is no slight against Moore’s @HPBasketball account where he regularly discusses basketball with great depth and analysis as well as reflections of his own world views. But to see people reply to this viewpoint of Michael Jordan or M.J.’s monologue about his singular dedication to winning with pleas for hugs and love and DESIRES TO BE MARC GASOL blows my freaking mind.

I get it: basketball isn’t everything. These men have parents, siblings, children, wives, friends. They have side hobbies and other dreams and aspirations, whether it be to change the lives of people with their background or just to run a podcast studio like every athlete and celebrity seems to have now. There is more to life than basketball even if it is a large part of how the world at large defines you.

But it’s such classic virtue-signaling Twitter to come out of the woodwork and question the singular dedication of Michael Jordan to be the best to ever do the thing he worked all life to do. The kind of people who’d tell Mozart to go outside and spend less time worrying about music or tell Van Gogh “Hey man, your ears are great, don’t torture yourself for your art. Have a Snickers!”

People love to throw shots at K.D. for how he’s willing to wade into the muck on Twitter, whether it be on his own account or on a burner that defends him. But there’s an honesty to every single one of Kevin Durant’s actions on social media that I appreciate. He’s a guy who views the jazz in basketball, the art within the sport and the science. Maybe he doesn’t love analytics as much as you or I do but he clearly invests every bit of himself into maximizing his contribution to the sport of basketball on the court. He’s one of the greatest players of his generation and he’s equipped to comment on Michael Jordan’s ability to find happiness in the tension he created.

So yes, I’d agree with Michael Jordan and Kevin Durant’s views on competitive health over guys on Twitter who want to be Marc Gasol. Life isn’t all sunshine and rainbows. To be the best of all time, you might have to ruffle a feather or two along the way. Ultimately, it’s all about what makes you happiest. More power to you if treating it like a 9-to-5 job is what gets you there.

But I’d rather achieve true greatness like a Jordan or Durant in a way that leaves an unassailable legacy for generations. You don’t get that by being happy to be there like Marc Gasol, no matter how charming his happiness may be: