Basketball Legend: When Pride Still Matters

"If it weren't for becoming Frye's teammate, you wouldn't even compare to LeBron!"

"When you're lucky enough to follow such a great person early in your career, you should feel honored, but unfortunately, I see no gratitude in you."

Durant was almost ignited.

Just as his dark soul was about to explode, ready to battle it out on Twitter, Sam Presti called.

Presti briefly comforted Durant, then inquired about the situation on Twitter.

"It's nothing, I just encountered a bunch of irrational fans."

This is Durant now, fully in role, even when provoked, he simply referred to the venom as "irrational fans."

Although Durant had the high ground in terms of decency, the advice he received was more unbearable than the disgusting words hurled at him.

"KD, I know you meant no harm, you're a competitor, everyone on our team knows that, but if someone with bad intentions misinterprets this tweet, it could negatively impact you... you'd better delete it."

If misinterpreted by someone with bad intentions?

Durant was so angry steam could have been shooting from his head.

Thousands were misinterpreting his tweet maliciously.

He was just lamenting how the NBA's morals were declining, even stars like James and Bosh shamelessly took shortcuts to championships, and yet, fans of player number 44 had to bark in his tweet for some unknown reason.

"I can handle it."

Durant wasn't Yu Fei, nor did he have the same status as Roy on the court.

But he was clear about his real status within the team.

In the eyes of management, he was second only to Yu Fei.

That made him feel that he didn't have to accept every piece of advice.

This was his Twitter, his tweets, his casual musings; why should he care about some people's opinions?

Shortly after Presti's call, Durant's agent, Rob Pelinka, called.

"KD, did you just post a tweet?"

"Yes," Durant replied, "I was reflecting on some phenomena in the league."

"Buddy, you need to delete that tweet."

For some unfathomable reason, the advice to manipulate Twitter from Presti and Pelinka upset Durant even more than the vile comments from player number 44's fans.

"Why are you making such a big deal out of this?"

Durant couldn't understand, he had just posted a tweet without naming names, simply trying to awaken people to the competitive nature of the sports world, but he was met with misinterpretations and opposition from those around him.

"KD, it's not overreacting; you need to delete that tweet before Frye sees it," Pelinka said, "Considering your position, you can't afford any conflict with Frye right now."

Durant felt suffocated.

He now knew why he was so upset.

He had always known, but Presti hadn't made it explicit, and he couldn't confirm his suspicions, but Pelinka's words spelled it out.

The venom was attacking him because the tweet could negatively affect player number 44.

Presti suggested deleting it because he anticipated certain situations might occur.

Pelinka's direct advice indicated that such situations would indeed occur.

"What does this have to do with Frye?" Durant said discontentedly, "I didn't mention anyone's name!"

Pelinka said rationally, "You might not realize it, but you subtly mocked LeBron and Chris. You should know LeBron is still Nike's leading star, you're colleagues, and now isn't the time to kick him while he's down. And Chris will be joining your team next season. Let me be frank, he's much closer to Frye than you are; they were inseparable during the Olympics, it's practically an open secret that Chris will join the Supersonics. Your tweet will embarrass Chris. But that's not the worst part; the worst thing is that Frye might hold it against you."

"What if I don't delete the tweet?"

In recent years, Nike had been increasing its marketing efforts for Durant.

After winning back-to-back championships with the team, Durant had become a hot new star.

Although he did not divide Reebok's market in the Supersonics as Nike had hoped, he was definitely the hottest NBA rookie at the moment.

Last season, Durant was the second leading scorer for the Supersonics.

Every day, he played one-on-one with Fei, and although Fei was harsh on him, this preferential treatment just proved that he was special.

Durant had never thought that a tweet sent on a whim would anger Fei.

"I don't know, KD, maybe nothing will happen, maybe everything will." Pelinka advised, "You can't bet that someone like Frye would act indulgently. You have to understand, Shaquille O'Neal, Kenyon Martin, Richard Hamilton... they are still paying for mistakes they made seven or eight years ago."

"I won't delete that tweet, Rob." Durant finally said, "I didn't do anything wrong."

Durant looked at the computer screen, where the numbers of likes, retweets, and replies for his tweet were increasing every second.

Normally, his tweets only received triple-digit likes, but now the likes had reached four digits.

When a person decides to rebel, they are not fearless. In fact, they are afraid too; they just hold on with the mindset of "I did nothing wrong."

However, a call from Nike's public relations department breached Durant's defenses.

"KD, you've spent two years showing the world what kind of person you are, but your efforts could be destroyed by a single tweet. A bad guy can do a hundred evil deeds, but if a good guy does one evil deed, he is viewed as a bad guy." the Nike PR person said on the phone, "It's not worth it."

Was Durant a good person?

He no longer knew himself.

When Nike demanded that he start acting like a good person from today, he retorted: "Do you think I'm not a good person?"

The folks at Nike replied, "You are good, but we need you to elevate 'good' to a whole new standard."

Durant clearly remembered that Nike asked him to "act."

This meant that Nike didn't think he was as friendly as he appeared to be.

This tweet was proof of that.

But Nike knew this, yet they didn't want the public to know.

In today's world, NBA stars are commodities, and they must present a unified front. They have to show their best side to drive sales and to ensure parents and fans allow their children to look up to these iconic players.

What attracts parents and fans more than an image of utmost goodness?

This was Nike's foresight. They had made a good move with Durant.

So, they couldn't just watch their chess piece self-destruct.

Moreover, Nike seemed to know Durant's Achilles' heel; they insisted he delete the tweet not because it would anger Fei but because of concerns over his public image.

This was a reason Durant couldn't refuse.

After the phone call, Durant silently deleted the tweet.

Then, he quickly posted a new tweet: "I apologize to everyone who was offended by my careless words."

The events of that day gave Durant a new understanding of the world.

The person who hadn't appeared from the beginning seemed to attack from all sides—fans, management, agents, and sponsors—based only on influence.

Durant had lost without even a confrontation.

In mid-August, Fei finished filming his movie and, along with Reebok's newly signed Stephen Curry and Kwame Brown, embarked on a tour of Asia.

When they arrived in Japan, Fei received an extraordinary welcome.

A Japanese journalist asked Fei for his opinion on Durant's Twitter incident.

"I have no comments." Fei spoke condescendingly, "Every family has a naughty child. Our child is more outstanding; he has already cleaned up his mess."

(1)For those who mostly watch sports and may not understand the term 'poisonous sole', it simply means liking only one person in a team, the "sole" one, and on top of that sole basis, there is "poison."

PS: Today's also unified. Mainly because I've started to write continuously recently, but when dividing into chapters, I fall into decision paralysis, not knowing how to divide them, so I just posted them together.