With the recent launch of Meta’s social media platform Threads, various personalities from sports media have already taken to the outlet and established a following. The same goes for athletes.
Twitter revolutionized the way people communicate with one another, including athletes with their fans, and one basketball player is infamously known for his use of “burner accounts.” These handles give Phoenix Suns forward and perennial NBA All-Star Kevin Durant the ability to respond to fans or those making questionable remarks in anonymity.
When Threads launched, Durant issued a tweet to his 20.8 million followers where he shared that he signed up with the platform using his burner account. He then invited Twitter users to find the account on the platform and was then questioned by someone regarding why he was acting in a juvenile manner. Durant responded that he lacks maturity, three words that have amassed more than 3 million views – and counting.
“It’s all tongue in cheek – he’s playing around; it’s no big deal,” Stephen A. Smith said on Friday’s edition of First Take on ESPN. “In terms of the tweet, it’s just provocation to get into a deeper subject when it comes to Kevin Durant.”
Smith has conversed with Durant numerous times in the past and chided him on national television for his antics on social media. Durant, a career 29 points per game scorer, is one of the most skilled players to ever in Smith’s eyes. Because of that, wondered why Durant feels the need to use burner accounts and respond to minutiae altogether.
Smith does not have a burner account, nor do ESPN analysts Monica McNutt and Kendrick Perkins, because they all feel that if they have something to say, their name should be attached to the statement. In the fragmented world of media dissemination and subsequent consumption with certain people accentuated more than others, Perkins and McNutt both could not blame Durant for using a burner account to communicate his messages.
Conversely, Smith explained that Durant should be willing to use his own voice to convey displeasure or criticism, even if others view it as extemporaneous. As he competes for a championship alongside Devin Booker, Bradley Beal and Deandre Ayton, Durant will look to silence critics with his performance on the court next season, even if he interacts with them occasionally on different outlets.
“I promise you come some point in time next season, somebody’s going to say or do something to agitate that man, and something’s going to show up on the burner account, and people are going to assume it’s him,” Smith said. “Whether it’s right or wrong, it’s going to be a tsunami of skepticism and criticism coming his way that’s going to agitate him even more because of stuff like this – and he brought it on himself.”
