Secrecy and professional sports go hand in hand.
Due to the desire to keep game plans and tactics a secret, professional athletes can be slippery in postgame interviews – sidestepping questions and speaking in generalities with the best of ’em.
But there are times when the players decide to give completely honest answers, devoid of subterfuge, and in those moments we catch a glimpse of how these professionals see the game they play.
This happened between Games 2 and 3 of the first round series between the Golden State Warriors and the Clippers of Los Angeles. A reporter asked Kevin Durant to describe the defense the Clippers were employing against him – a defense that had held him to 21 points on 5-for-8 from the field.
Durant was catching heat for not shooting more despite his usual highly efficient stat line. He explained his thought process behind the shots he takes (or passes up) and then some:
"I'm not gonna get in the way of the game because I wanna have a little back-and-forth with Patrick Beverley. I'm Kevin Durant. You know who I am."
Kevin Durant shared a detailed breakdown of his takeaways from their Game 2 loss. pic.twitter.com/gS8PRodqXx
— SportsCenter (@SportsCenter) April 17, 2019
“I’m Kevin Durant,” he said. “You know who I am.”
Durant backed up that declaration the next four games in the series, averaging 41.5 points per contest – including a 50-burger in the Game 6 clincher at Staples Center.
“What more could you have done to slow Kevin down?”
That was the question posed to Patrick Beverley and Lou Williams after they were eliminated from the postseason, largely in part to the aforementioned 50-burger.
Maybe it was the fact that their season was over. Maybe it was the fact that Durant finished the series at an uber-efficient 57% from the field on 120 shots. Maybe it was a little of both.
Whatever it was, the two gave a refreshingly honest answer about a player that has a solid claim to the title of best basketball player walking the face of the earth.
“We tried everything,” Williams said. “We had several different coverages for KD. And…”
“They didn’t work,” Beverley said, cutting Williams off.
“Sometimes you come across special people and it doesn’t matter what you send to them,” Williams continued. “There’s no scheme, there’s no nothing that you can do with special people. And he’s one of them. And he showed it tonight. He put them guys on his shoulders.
“Even the game he came out and was like, ‘I’m Kevin Durant, y’all know who I am.’ That’s a bold statement to make when you about to go see some guys that are extremely competitive. And he game out that game and said, ‘I can really shoot over these guys.’ And he did it.
“So it wasn’t a lack of effort on our part. He’s an all-world professional.”
What an answer.
If you haven’t already check out the answer in the video at the top of this post. The pair gave the back-to-back champs a run for their money, taking the series to six games after taking a pair at Oracle Arena.
And we’ll miss their honesty.