Could Kevin Durant's Social Media Fiasco End Up Being Positive for Rockets?

Kevin Durant and the Twitter app. What a combination. The two have become synonymous.

No athlete has ever become more active on the platform than the Houston Rockets superstar.

He seizes the opportunity to engage with fans on the platform. It's drawn him scrutiny in the past.

Players can do what they wish when away from the playing surface. Unless they're committing crimes or breaking the law.

Or bashing teammates on burner accounts. Allegedly.

Durant is deep in the vortex that is the Twittersphere.

He's had a burner scandal before. In 2017, when he accidentally exposed himself, tweeting on his verified account in third person to defend himself from the scrutiny that he was receiving from strangers for bolting the Oklahoma City Thunder for the Golden State Warriors in unrestricted free agency.

Durant later admitted to it, while adding that he still uses burners. Which became obvious over the weekend, when a similar scandal arose.

Allegedly.

Which has to continue to be stated, because this time there was no smoking gun. Durant wasn't tweeting directly from his verified account. There was no blue check this time.

A burner account believed to be belonging to Durant (albeit unconfirmed) posted a litanv of disparaging messages about Durant's former and current teammates.

Jabari Smith Jr. and Alperen Sengun were referenced. Again, it remains unknown whether Durant was the brainpower and mastermind behind the account.

However, it won’t be cleared up by Durant. That’s been proven by now.

The future Hall of Famer had the opportunity to nip it in the bud once and for all upon addressing the media on Wednesday.

He spurned the chance.

Instead, he stated that he didn’t want to address “Twitter non-sense.”

There are a few things wrong with that response. For starters, again, Durant and Twitter go hand in hand.

He lives for the Twitter non-sense. At least, he has historically.

Now, all of a sudden, he’s backing away from it?

The greater issue with that approach is that Durant could have easily ended the whole “Twitter nonsense” by simply denying it and stating emphatically that he wasn’t behind the burner account.

Instead, he leaves doubt regarding whether he truly feels that way about his teammates.

Well, actually, many have little doubt that the account belonged to him, at this juncture. And especially after seeing his response to the “allegations”.

Which could have been eradicated, had he issued a strong denial. Or even any semblance of one.

The good thing is that the Rockets were able to seemingly move past it in their first game back on the hardwood against the Charlotte Hornets.

Durant was business as usual, with 35 points on 20 shots, and was Houston's closer.

As usual.

Maybe the "scandal" (if you want to call it that) will prove to be a good thing for Houston's season.