This should be fun

We should cede ESPN to KD when he retires.

I welcome this trash talk. Maybe pride and reputation will force the players to take is seriously. And I know the refrain is, “But they don’t wanna get injured for a meaningless game!” These guys play much harder in practice and summer scrimmages all year long. 10-30 minutes with a diminished offensive load is not a major risk.

I’m enjoying cranky old man KD.

Lebon is too image conscious to say these things. Steph is too nice.

Then you’ve got KD going around making faces when Gobert shoots and airball, telling that dude it was a “trash ass miss”, telling that heckler, “I know where you live, white boy”, saying he doesn’t shower and goes around “musty”, etc.

Deni Avdija probably gonna go for the ASG MVP award lmao

He’s not wrong. Luka is focused on Overwatch. Jokic is focused on horses.

Wait, what?? Trash talking before an All-Star game? Is it actually gonna be good this year now??

Lol we’re picking up what you’re putting down

It’s the Americans setting the culture here KD. Those guys just fit into what you created. Allstar games have been a joke for a a decade now

Kevin Durant needs a wife and family

Shots fired, you gonna take that Luka? Oh wait he’s probably not even playing.

National treasure

He’s got valid points and has the right to say these things because as he’s mentioned in the past, he’s Kevin fucking Durant

But

He is also sounding like the old heads he dislikes who hate on him, now he’s hating on two younger players for effort and making the game look bad, the same rhetoric guys like Barkley spew about today’s game in general

Interesting parallels or am I just on some bs?

At this point I’d rather the NBA just have a week off than an All-star Weekend. Maybe something like a G-League tournament with good money for the winning team would also be interesting. Guys in that league would play their asses off for an extra 250-500k a piece. Plus it would be a good way for teams to potentially sign on young guys that could fill out their roster.

Edit: redundancy

To be fair I’ve never heard anybody clown KD for refusing to care at All Star Games while Luka and Joker made headlines for their play at the game so I can see why he would be annoyed

This is weird. KD is using this one reporter’s question to him to flip it into a race discussion in a vacuum. The CONSENSUS viewpoint for the past x amount of years has never been “only the black/American players play lazy in the ASG”. It’s always been ALL of them. 

Hes stirring the pot for the game and so many people aren’t realizing it lmfao

Saying the quiet part out loud lol

Known competitor and taker of hardest roads asked if he’s going to compete.

Kd face turn

Probably an unpopular opinion but I’m beyond over the Jokic “ugh I don’t want to be here why are you all bothering me with anything basketball pr related ugh” antics. Love watching the dude play but Christ it’s gotten old

Nothing but facts.

Jordan had no incentive playing everyday on the space jam set and yet he made point smoking anyone who came to his court

I love the trash talk, lol

I used to like Durant.  But that was a long time ago.

You’re right Kevin, people putting up half court shots in the ASG is horrible. Next, you’re going to criticize Curry for doing the same, or not. Selective outrage. He should join the Kendrick Perkins club.

Honestly this is probably going to be the most effective way to increase the level of competition.

Almost like the star players weren’t trying when Luka and Jokic had their first all star games so they learned not to try is standard procedure.

I wonder who those star players could have been KD.

I honestly love KD for being such a hater.

Is this trash talk or deflection? I honestly can’t decide

Here come the Jokic Defense Force!

they were already playing like globetrotters at the all star game before luka and jokic joined

What is KD on about? All-star game been shit because nobody plays hard and everyone gets called out…

He wants everyone to be called out with name, race, nationality, home address, social security and number of pets? Just go hyper specific so KD’s insane insecurity gets satisfied?

American players been super obsessed with this for the last couple of years. Sadly enough, they have never complained about Jokic getting basically no coverage in American media compared to other stars in the league but american players want him to get the negative coverage though 😩😩

People are so insecure and full of pity these days.. Not even multi millionaires in some of the best jobs in the world are not safe.

Karen Durant

Whereas American superstars, on the other hand, make any kind of effort ever in the asg? Gmafb lol like ok doing completely undefended alley oops and dunks in the lane are so much more compelling than half court shots

Damn, KD really using everything he learned on Twitter to rage bait the non American players 😂

This whole USA v World thing is such a flawed concept to begin with. The media got all obsessed with this idea last year because the last 7 MVPs have all been international players, so they were like “Does the USA still produce the best basketball players!?!” Like, yes we do. Look at literally any other metric besides “which country did this year’s MVP come from” and it’s super obvious. This all-star game is just further proof. They had to add KAT to the “World” team because they didn’t have enough players, and there are 2 USA teams and only 1 World team. And on their “World” team how many of these guys would be all-stars if they didn’t “clearly need more international players to fill out the roster”. Siakam is great, but the Pacers are like the worst team in the NBA this year how do they get an all-star? Deni Avdija is having a career year, cool, good enough to make an all-star team for the play-in bound Trailblazers?

All time hater

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=fKIwj1TQmFs

Oh shit lol

Lol getting the competition fired up for ASG.

Jokic hates the NBA. It’s his side job. He’d never leave his village if he didn’t have to.

Aren’t Luka and Jokic both hurt?

Have they considered doing ASG in the offseason? The players seem to go hard in summer workouts, and just want a break mid season

Says the guy that immediately joined the team that beat him in a 7 games series the year before.

KD coming for SAS spot when he retires

Looking forward to seeing what they actually do this year, or is it all talk, just like the last 20 All-Star Games?

Will be sad if it fully devolves into the pro bowl where there is no real game and nobody cares.

Not far away at this point. It’s really not that hard for the players to give marginal effort. Truly embarrassing.

The NBA is making the all star a humiliation ritual.

Make it part of the max contracts these players are getting that part of their salaries is non-guaranteed and dependent on All-Star game performance and viewership metrics. They are showmen at the end of the day–if they aren’t putting out a product that fans want to watch, they should get penalized for it.

I feel like you are very limited in how you can incentivize competitive play when these players are making 50, 60, 70+ millions a year.

Here’s a fix. We get all the guys who have fought and involved in scrums this year. Let them settle it on the court. Call your own fouls. Street style.

Stew, Draymond, Bridges, who else?

It’s wild to me that people watch The NBA regular season

Yall are lazy as fuck. The nba will be changing folks. Dudes just go through the motions now

Oh I have an idea - we should get all Americans to compete against all French and all Slovenians, and all Serbians, and all Greek, and every other nation. And we make it every two years.

This seems like some light hearted ribbing of Americans vs Europeans.

This feels like WWE buildup

He’s absolutely right

I mean Jokić just doesn’t fit in the all star. He needs to have chemistry with teammates and they have to be on the same page (you know, know the playbook) for him to get flashy asists. And his scoring game is fancy footwork, floaters and regular jump shots with occasional fadeaway or sombor shuffle.

Luka on the other hand has a fun game, deep threes, crossovers, step backs and pick and roll.

My bet is Jokić plays bare minimum regarding of minutes, but the rest of the world team really plays hard. Especially if they add Dillon. I mean Victor is a sicko and he could rub off his competitive spirit to others as well

Shots fired