Out of nowhere this week, Kevin Durant took to Instagram to give his picks from a random graphic asking NBA fans which commentators they would take off air. Durant’s picks were Colin Cowherd and Nick Wright of FS1.
Neither Wright nor Cowherd addressed the goofy barb until Thursday, when Wright joined The Dan Le Batard Show and not only gave his thoughts on the situation, but also recounted a conversation he had with Durant about it.
After seeing Durant’s Instagram story, Wright said, he messaged the Houston Rockets forward with a thinking emoji and a note: “I thought we were cool now, hate to see it.”
Durant’s response: “What made you think that?”
Durant added that it didn’t matter what he thought of Wright because clearly Wright’s bosses at FS1 “love” him.
To which Wright got slightly more defensive, arguing that his skills as a commentator are “unimpeachable.” And on the Le Batard Show on Thursday, Wright added that he actually believes he and Durant are similar.
“I don’t think he knows what it’s like to be me, either,” Wright explained. “If anything, we have a symbiosis, where neither one of us is the GOAT of our profession but deep down, we think we should be, and think we’re a little underrated and disrespected. And so that’s fine. There are critics of how I go about my business, that’s fine.”
Durant joked back that Wright had an “opportunity to move up” on his all-time list of sports hosts, offering a spin on sports TV legacy debates, which Durant has long been critical of.
Explaining the disagreement further, Wright said he believes Durant does not appreciate where Wright has him ranked among all-time NBA greats. Wright added that he thinks Durant is likely also “upset” by Wright’s criticism of the burner-account scandal that appeared to knock Houston off course this season, as well as Wright’s relationship with LeBron James, with whom he shares an agency.
“I think he thinks that I have historically underrated him,” Wright said.
“Two, I think he thinks that I give favorable opinions to guys that I might have a personal relationship with. And I think three, and my guess is (this is) the reason he picked Colin and me, is I think we were two of the most kind of loud voices that were like, ‘Yeah that whole talking sh*t on all your teammates midseason and then the season going to hell thing, that’s probably on you.'”
About Brendon Kleen
Brendon is a Media Commentary staff writer at Awful Announcing. He has also covered basketball and sports business at Front Office Sports, SB Nation, Uproxx and more.