Does Kevin Durant Really Use Secret Social Media Accounts to Defend Himself?

Kevin Durant appears to have secret social media accounts that he uses to defend himself, and he's getting roasted for it.

Photo Removed
Complex Original

Blank pixel used during image takedowns

Photo Removed

Kevin Durant has not exactly endeared himself to the public over the last year or so. There are many people who respect the game of the reigning NBA Finals MVP, but his move to Golden State to play for the Warriors has made him an easy target. He has done his best to hint that he doesn't care and that his personal satisfaction with the move is all that matters, but the truth may be a lot more complicated than that.

Over the weekend, some interesting screenshots surfaced on Twitter, appearing to show Durant firing back at his critics. There was only one problem: It appears as though Durant—or whoever was controlling his account at the time—was trying to send the defensive tweets from an alternate account and forgot to switch usernames before clapping back.

kevin durant on twitter
kevin durant alt account twitter

It only gets worse from there, as internet sleuths tracked down other social media accounts from which Durant appears to clap back at his haters. A Reddit user named JanleyDoe noted that an Instagram account, @quiresultan, is followed by some of KD's closest friends and family and has been tagged in previous photos featuring KD. That name is apparently a reference to Quire Avenue and Sultan Avenue, a pair of streets in Prince George County, Maryland, where Durant grew up. The dead giveaway is that his brother has tagged the account in photos of the two of them.

kevin durant

Not long after this was discovered, NBA fans began scouring through KD's history on that account, and the imposter account appears to regularly clap back at any detractors of Durant. It's also followed by some notable names, Draymond Green, Big Sean, and KD's former Thunder teammate Andre Roberson among them.

kevin durant quiresultan

Durant clearly realized something was up at some point Sunday night or early Monday morning, and he appeared to do his best to avoid the heat by simply changing the IG username to the account. It is now under the gloriously uncreative name of @shanghainoon12345, perhaps because Durant figured that would be a harder thing to search for. But the photo tags still dime him out.

kevin durant

This would be wild corny even if KD was just some random dude off the street, banging away at his keyboard from within a cubicle. But why the hell is one of the best basketball players on the planet doing this? We all have our guilty pleasures we like to hide from the public, but it's hard to fathom someone with as much money and access as you could ever ask for doing this in their free time.

He's not the first person in the sports world to do this, of course, but he may be the most prominent. The only other name that comes to mind is Skip Bayless, who once got caught trying to use a fake account to promote his FS1 show, Undisputed, in the comment section of a Facebook Live post. People ripped Bayless for the move at the time—rightfully so—and they really let Durant have it when the news of his fake accounts surfaced.

"I'm not mad, I just made special hater shoes & set up burner twitter accounts to defend myself but I'm definitely not mad"

-Kevin Durant
Kevin Durant's out here tweeting like... pic.twitter.com/ZvIP0erock
"Hi, I'm Kelvin Durant, Kevin Durant's father! It's not his fault his left OKC! He was playing with bums! pic.twitter.com/hOgZokWVXv
Exclusive footage of Kevin Durant addressing the critics pic.twitter.com/GfhkrsJVoz
Kevin Durant and his social media manager who was defending his honor pic.twitter.com/LvfuTNefD3
Kevin Durant making twitter accounts right now like pic.twitter.com/r1EyaVoCWO
"You coming Kevin?"
"Y'all go on, I'll catch up lol haha" pic.twitter.com/CBUI9NlYMs

Durant's a weird guy who has done some questionable things in the past as it pertains to addressing his critics. Back in 2016, he yelled at himself during a practice and then offered up this absolutely insane explanation to reporters after they caught him doing so.

That's what I say to myself when I'm working. I hear it all the time. You hear the noise. You hear what they say about you. Everybody hears it. So it's a little extra motivation when you hear it. Nobody in this arena right now, and that's when you get better. Nobody sees you when you're doing this stuff right here, but luckily y'all was in here watching.

Translation: Luckily there were witnesses for an event that I just told you nobody needed to be here for in order to get better. Okay, man.

A word of advice: If you want to keep doing this, it's probably best to scrap the old account and start over, KD. No one is going to be thrown off by a simple name change, and the secret is out now. While we all wait for you to tell us you were "hacked," do yourself a favor and at least get yourself another burner account.

Latest in Sports