Opinion: The Problem with Dennis Schroder's Response to Kevin Durant

Brooklyn Nets guard Dennis Schroder and Phoenix Suns forward Kevin Durant recently made headlines over an exchange regarding USA versus world basketball. After Team USA took home gold in Paris for men's basketball, Durant went on X to post a picture of the team together with their medals, captioning it with, "ENTERTAINMENT & IQ."

ENTERTAINMENT & IQ pic.twitter.com/2e9dopdrJi
— Kevin Durant (@KDTrey5) August 11, 2024

But where did the caption come from? Earlier, before Germany's Bronze Medal Game against Serbia, Schroder was in a press conference and made the following statement: "European basketball is no entertainment, it's straight IQ basketball. Straight coaching."

It was clear that Schroder's comments were directed toward American and NBA basketball, but Team USA proved him wrong as they defeated European teams en route to the gold. After Durant made that post, Schroder responded on a Twitch stream, saying the following: "They won, and Kevin Durant tweets, 'High IQ and entertainment.' For me, that's just being weak."

"You're that type of a star, and you have to say something to a person like me who not even meant it to be negative," he said. "It was just what I see from both sides, you know what I'm saying? I didn't appreciate it."

There's a problem with how Schroder responded. To put it simply, he took a jab at American basketball, and Durant proved him wrong, but now Schroder is going back on his claim by calling Durant "weak."

Schroder shouldn't have responded and should have taken this one on the chin. He was proven wrong by Team USA defeating all of their competition in tuneup games, group play and elimination rounds. America proved that they still run world basketball when it comes to the top talent. To be proven wrong and then call the person who proved you wrong, "weak," just for defending their country is not a good look.

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