It is understandable that people don’t see the Thunder as a serious title contender. The clear favorites are the Spurs, Warriors and Cavaliers.
The Thunder are a second tier favorite, I don’t know why that rubs KD the wrong way, because it doesn’t matter what anyone thinks, if they win they will get their credit.
But, he has had an issue with the media for a while, not exactly sure why, but he just does. Here are his latest comments when asked if it bugs him the Thunder are being overlooked.
“Man, the [media and experts are] always trying to nitpick us,” Kevin Durant told ESPN.com. “I mean, they don’t like us. They don’t like how Russell [Westbrook] talks to the media, they don’t like how I talk to the media. So obviously, yeah, they’re not going to give us the benefit of the doubt.
“Especially since we’ve been together so long. Some of these teams are new, except for the Spurs, who have won. But we haven’t won and we’ve still got the same core, so they don’t expect us to win. It is what it is, who cares about them. They don’t mean nothing, the critics. Their opinions, everybody has one, but we don’t really care about them. Every day we’re just going to keep grinding this thing out. We feel like we can compete with anybody.”
I don’t think anyone nitpicks them, but professionalism goes both ways. If you want the media to report fairly, calling them names, trying to intimidate them and just being a bully isn’t going to help.
I honestly think this is more about KD’s personal feelings of his situation than him disliking the media. It is hard being 2nd best all the time.