Give Kevin Durant this a lot credit score: The person is not afraid to go to the mattresses.

However let’s let the reward, awe or understanding finish there. Durant’s transfer this week to reportedly sit with Brooklyn Nets proprietor Joe Tsai and lay down a me-or-them ultimatum is the newest proof that the one factor Durant could excel at greater than basketball is an uncanny knack for turning tone deafness into an artwork type.

He is a diva-may-care. And Tsai has to inform the person the identical phrase Nets normal supervisor Sean Marks did, as we prompt right here when information of Durant’s commerce demand first surfaced, the phrase that has led to all this huffing and puffing to blow Tsai’s group down: No.

No, Kevin, you are not in cost.

No, Kevin, we cannot blow up our group, or commerce you, or — cue Durant’s newest would-be energy play — fireplace all of the adults within the room as a result of they did not deal with your tantrum just like the world’s most sagacious response to issue. 

Let’s hone in on why, in London, Durant reportedly advised the Nets proprietor he should both commerce him — or fireplace head coach Steve Nash and Marks.

It isn’t, as Shams Charania reported for The Athletic, as a result of Durant is “clear {and professional},” the outline of the supposed temper of the high-powered confab. That is all taking place, together with the timing and tone of this information story, as a result of Durant has too typically made a behavior of being neither clear nor skilled.

It does not take a rocket scientist to learn this piece from Charania, a world-class NBA newsbreaker who himself has been clear at occasions about his willingness to hold water for the sources who permit him to supply such correct and priceless info, and deduce that Durant or these close to him leaked the reporting in alternate for casting all this in a good mild.

Thus, KD’s newest me-me-me-me transfer will get bought as an above-the-board powerbroker dealing with such difficulties with aplomb and maturity. Do not buy it for a second.

Strip away the quid-pro-quo that’s the heartbeat of breaking sports activities information, and “doesn’t place confidence in the group’s path” really interprets to: Did not do my bidding.

As in: Durant demanded a commerce, Marks stated no, and the celebrity, unaccustomed to that phrase, has responded with a next-level transfer. The selection now that it is both him or them. Regardless of the main points that, , precisely one yr earlier than the Tsai assembly, Durant signed a four-year, $198 million contract extension.

Durant is not simply saying maintain me or maintain them. He is saying, no matter how newsbreakers attempt to current his newest diva-demand, both commerce him — or make him the boss.

Look, Durant is a basketball participant of otherworldly expertise and dedication. His expertise borders on the miraculous, and his love for the sport is obvious. He’s additionally, when not going full diva, by all accounts a fantastic man. Human beings are sophisticated, and we may be many issues directly: Proficient, devoted, hungry, variety, attention-grabbing, insightful, and filled with petty grievances and insecurities. 

None of that is to say Durant is a foul particular person, as if that has anywhere in a sports activities column. It is to say that many all-time nice gamers are remarkably terrible string-pullers and would-be GMs. Look westward, Tsai, to the Los Angeles Lakers and one LeBron James for a real-world, real-time reminder.

Commerce Durant (for the suitable worth), or do not. Imagine in him, or resolve you’ve got had sufficient. However do not permit Durant to burn all the things down as a result of final yr was powerful. Do not let him maintain you hostage as a result of he did not get his approach in demanding a commerce that may devastate the Nets and not using a truthful return. Do not let him finish the run of Marks, who has confirmed himself a fantastic normal supervisor, nor that of a Corridor of Fame participant in Nash who deserves extra time to indicate what he can or cannot do as a head coach.

That is scorched-earth stuff. Issues went dangerous, let me depart. You will not simply give me away, fireplace everybody. You will not fireplace everybody, superb, time for the public-news-bomb-pressure marketing campaign. 

That is the opposite a part of this.

It is past credulity to entertain the concept Tsai or these round him leaked this information. There is no want. The Nets proprietor does not must leverage himself by leaking a blockbuster bit of reports with the intention to stress himself. He is the choice maker. So if this report from Shams got here from Durant and the folks round him — as appears fairly clear, particularly given the rosy presentation of Durant’s finish of issues — then KD went in 24 hours, straight from asking Tsai to fireside Nash and Marks, to making an attempt to publicly stress Tsai to do it.

That is a tantrum. Or hardball. Or each. However both approach, it is dangerous enterprise, and there stays one phrase in response, both to buying and selling a generational expertise like KD for lower than what you need in return, or in firing the GM who will not accomplish that, alongside together with his hand-picked head coach:

No. 

No, Kevin.

No.