Kevin Durant learning of a trade while he was on stage at Fanatics Fest. Kevin Durant learning of a trade while he was on stage at Fanatics Fest. (@AryePulliNFL on X.)
By Andrew Bucholtz on

The sports media news cycle often sees trades announced at surprising times, and athletes finding out about them in surprising ways. For Phoenix Suns’ forward Kevin Durant, that came Sunday. There, he learned he was traded to the Houston Rockets during an on-stage interview with Taylor Rooks at Fanatics Fest in New York City:

Fortunately, this was indeed a real report, with ESPN’s Shams Charania posting it to X at 12:38 p.m. ET:

But the “Is it real?” is a good precaution to take in this day and age. We’ve seen many news outlets fooled by fake reports, and even some previous Charania reports (which did prove accurate) saw people wondering if he was hacked (and Charania wondering that himself when he first got the Luka Dončić news). And, with Durant being on stage and being interviewed, he may not have seen any level of official notification he got at this point. (Or it may not have even been sent yet.)

At any rate, the timing here provided remarkable access for fans to Durant’s initial reaction. Whether that’s a good thing or not depends on your perspective; Durant, for one, might have preferred this broke at a different time so he could process it privately rather than having his facial expressions and comments immediately seen by the world. But news happens when it happens, and it just so happened to come at quite the time here.

 

 

About Andrew Bucholtz

Andrew Bucholtz has been covering sports media for Awful Announcing since 2012. He is also a staff writer for The Comeback. His previous work includes time at Yahoo! Sports Canada and Black Press.

View all posts by Andrew Bucholtz