Kevin Durant says playing against the Thunder will be a ‘regular’ game for him

Kevin Durant is a great basketball player and one of the best scorers we’ve ever seen. He’s also genuinely open and wears his heart on his sleeves when he’s off the court. That’s why it’s hard to believe him when he says his second return to Oklahoma City to play the Thunder will be a “regular” game for him.

“It’s just a regular game for me now. I learned how to tune out the crowd, I learned how to tune out the bulls*** and just play,” Durant said. “Just keep it at basketball.”

This is Durant’s second homecoming in Oklahoma City since leaving to join the Warriors a couple of summers ago. The first time, Durant was emotional in his return saying that it’d be great to see people he hadn’t seen and that he “put everything” into his time in Oklahoma City.

Now, all of a sudden, it’s just a regular game. But somewhere in there, Durant still cares. Here are a few reasons why it’s hard to believe he doesn’t.

Sure, his first return to Oklahoma City is out of the way. But there’s no way that Durant doesn’t care about what’s going on here. This is the same player who admitted that he has burner Twitter accounts that he logs on to for the sole purpose of defending himself against his haters.

It’s the same guy who made velvet cupcake shoes after the Oklahoma City crowd booed him and called him a cupcake for leaving their city. It’s also the same guy who has a pair of shoes letting us know every insult anyone ever called him for leaving Oklahoma City and every accomplishment he’s accrued since.

As far as shaking off the crowd, we don’t know about that one either. Durant, himself, told us he was a bit shook by Rihanna cheering for the Cavaliers and trash talking her Roc Nation conglomerate in the process. These things still get to him, one way or another. Has that changed? Maybe. But the safer bet is that it probably hasn’t.

Caring about things is what makes us human. Durant caring about people talking trash to him, despite him being a multi-millionaire and maybe the best basketball player on the planet, brings us a bit closer to him than we are with other athletes.

Durant’s boilerplate answer about whether he cares about this particular return to Oklahoma City is just that — a boilerplate answer. Since he admitted to having burner Twitter accounts, Durant has toned down his emotional side a bit which makes things less distracting for the Warriors.

So we can take this answer for what it is and not read too much into it. But deep down, Durant probably still cares about playing against Oklahoma City and the people in it.