If you didn’t think the incident between Kevin Durant and a Dallas Mavericks fan could get any weirder, it took an unexpected turn when the fan, identified as Luke Brawner, called into a sports radio show to discuss the encounter. Brawner, who received 15 seconds of fame for his actions during the pre-game altercation, spoke about the situation on The Ben and Skin Show on 97.1-FM KEGL The Freak.
Mavs fan calls Kevin Durant “a b*tch” and KD pauses to have words.
Security about to kick the fans out when KD comes back to tell them not to kick them out. pic.twitter.com/CTqPnM4T16
— Jonah Javad (@JonahJavad) February 23, 2024
Though Brawner (the man seen in the video above) avoided defending his behavior on a radio interview Friday, footage captured him attempting to explain to Durant that he hosts a sports podcast. Unsurprisingly, this revelation prompted Durant to end the conversation, as most people might find the sudden disclosure of hosting a podcast — let alone a sports one — irrelevant or uninteresting in such a context.
“I don’t want to justify anything that was said,” Brawner said via WFAA. “But I do want to provide some context.”
Brawner explained that their attendance at Thursday’s Suns-Mavericks game at the American Airlines Center in Dallas was a tribute to his late friend. He mentioned that he and the woman were present there to pay respects to her brother and his best friend, Nathan, who had passed away a few years prior.
Nathan passed away at around 2:22 a few years ago, and his memorial service was held on Feb. 22 of that same year. As Nathan was a huge sports fan, his family and friends attended the Suns game against the Mavs on Thursday, Feb. 22, as it coincided with the date of his memorial. Brawner and Nathan’s sister decided to go to the game as a tribute to Nathan.
During Friday’s radio interview, Brawner revealed that his late friend’s sister had insulted Durant with a derogatory term. However, Brawner did not condone her behavior and instead acknowledged that Durant had every right to respond the way he did. Moreover, Brawner added that he was impressed by how Durant handled the situation with dignity and composure.
Now, how in the world does his having a sports podcast come into play?
Nathan was a frequent guest on Brawner’s sports podcast, Yay! Go, Sports! However, the show has yet to release new episodes since October 2018. While Nathan never got the chance to share this with Durant directly, he expressed similar strong opinions about him (including expletives) during his appearances on the podcast.
And for some reason, his sister thought using that as a tribute would be appropriate.
When Durant confronted Brawner and his friend about the insult, Brawner recounted that Durant asked, “Why’d you say that?” Brawner, hesitant, replied, “Do you really want to know?” to which Durant insisted, “Yes, tell me why you said that.” Brawner then attempted to explain the entire situation, including the podcast context, but Durant reportedly lost interest and didn’t engage further.
Durant didn’t ask either fan to be kicked out, likely because he lost interest in the whole ordeal once a sports podcast became the forefront of the conversation. We can’t assume what Durant was thinking, but it’s not hard to envision he thought this was someone’s attempt at 15 seconds of fame once he heard the term “podcast” uttered.
According to the video shared above by Jonah Javad, he also reminded Nathan that he was a “grown-up.”
“It was just a joke to us, but we forget the humanity of the person on the other end of that joke,” Brawner said. “I’m used to seeing this person on highlight reels. I’m used to seeing this person’s face, and I can yell at the TV all day long, but you sort of forget when you remove the humanity from that person that your words still really matter.”
[WFAA]
