It has been five years since Kevin Durant was the butt of a joke made by Peyton Manning at the ESPY Awards, and while time has passed, Durant is still not happy about it.
The Brooklyn Nets star was tagged in a tweet that resurfaced the clip from Manning’s opening monologue at the 2017 ESPYs.
Manning was commending the “Final Five” women’s gymnastics team for winning the most Olympic medals for any U.S. gymnastics team ever.
“Our gymnastics team was so dominant, Kevin Durant told me he wants to play for them next year,” Manning said as the camera panned to a clearly unhappy Durant, who had just won a championship after joining a 73-win Golden State Warriors team. “And I gotta tell ya, I don’t think you’d start for that team, Kevin.”
Durant was asked on Twitter Wednesday why he was “so salty?”
“if it was funny I would’ve laughed…it’s a simple concept.”
Another fan told Durant it was funny and that he was being “butthurt” about the joke, but Durant fired back at that fan saying, “I really don’t believe it’s that deep, it wasn’t funny so I didn’t laugh, im glad u enjoyed the laugh tho, it’s therapeutic for the soul.”
Manning also turned to Russell Westbrook, who was reportedly feuding with Durant because he left the Thunder for the Warriors a year earlier, and asked him “Russell Westbrook, what do you think?”
Westbrook did his best not to react, keeping his hand over his mouth. Unlike Durant, he did not weigh in on the joke on Twitter.
Durant would win two NBA Finals with the Warriors, winning the MVP in each of them, so it was not as if he was riding anyone’s coattails for a ring.
He left the Warriors in 2019 for the Brooklyn Nets, where things are not going so smoothly. Meanwhile, the Warriors just won another title without him and now there are even rumors he could go back to the Warriors.
It is probably unlikely he ends up back in Golden State, but if he does there may be some more jokes at his expense.
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