Kevin Durant has not been shy about his use of burner accounts. But Stephen A. Smith still doesn’t appear to be a fan of the NBA superstar’s anonymity.
After Mark Zuckerberg and Facebook’s parent company Meta went live with new text-based social media platform Threads this week, Durant quickly tweeted that he was already there with his burner accounts. So, Friday morning on First Take, Smith addressed Durant’s propensity for burner accounts. He claimed the NBA star should look to educate fans through honest basketball conversations under his name instead of using an alias to engage with trolls.
“Let me address the issue of burner accounts,” Smith continued. “Obviously, I don’t have one. I don’t have one, never thought about having one, don’t need one. First Take’s two hours every day, that’s 10 hours a week. In my case, I’ve never worked less than 45 weeks a year in my career. I’ve never worked less than 300 plus days a year in my career. I’m that dude. I put in the hours.”
“What I’m trying to say to you is even putting in the hours, it don’t stop me from having the Stephen A. Smith Podcast. That’s even more trouble that I could potentially get into. I don’t give a damn. Here’s the point I’m trying to make, if you’re gonna say something, stand on it.”
Smith claimed actors should be excused from this take, because studios will dictate what they want promoted and any negative press can alter a movie’s box office performance. The First Take host cited the 2022 film Emancipation, and its less-than-positive reception in the wake of Will Smith slapping Chris Rock at the Oscars, as an example. But in terms of athletes, Smith condemns their decision to hide behind burner accounts.
“Ain’t nothing affecting the bottom line of KD,” Smith said. “Burner accounts? As much as they hold us accountable? As much as they sit up there and talk about us…these same people that will talk about burner accounts are the same ones that will challenge you to man up. Nah, we ain’t giving them that pass.”
Durant was exposed for using burner accounts on Twitter back in 2017, and has admitted that he continues to use them. But Durant also tweets plenty from his personal account, and he even attempted to “educate” fans by jumping into a Twitter Spaces debate titled “Kevin Durant is not top 5.” Durant fires back at fans with the account that bears his name and he similarly has no issue calling out media such as Nick Wright, Skip Bayless, Jason McIntyre, and yes, even Stephen A. Smith.
Condemning Durant for not “standing on” something is an easy take because he already admitted to using burner accounts. But it’s also a lazy one, because Durant has since proved he’s willing to say something and stand on it.
