Nets' Kevin Durant calls out ESPN's Jay Williams for story about KD, Giannis: 'A f—ing lie'

Jacob Camenker

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Nets' Kevin Durant calls out ESPN's Jay Williams for story about KD, Giannis: 'A f—ing lie' image

It looks like ESPN analyst Jay Williams and Nets star Kevin Durant have some beef.

And it all stems from a story that Williams told about Durant and Giannis Antekounmpo.

In the aftermath of the Nets' 125-86 blowout win over the Bucks, Williams recounted a time when Durant told him not to ever compare him to the Greek Freak. Here's what Williams said of the encounter on ESPN's "Get Up" Tuesday morning.

A couple of years ago we're at a holiday party and I came on this show and we did a segment where we had Anthony Davis and we had Kevin Durant. I said, 'You know, if Anthony Davis and KD would have a baby, the similarities physically-wise would be like Giannis.' I go to the holiday party, Kevin Durant comes up to me and says, ''Yo, don't you ever, ever compare me to Giannis. Don't you ever compare me to Giannis.'

 

I say, 'KD, what are you talking about? I was just talking about similarities physicality-wise, size, length.' He's like, 'No. Don't you ever compare me to Giannis.'

 

So, when I see that matchup, you know what that matchup says to me? That's something personal for Kevin Durant. That's who he's attacking each and every day. 'Cause that's been in his brain because people have talked about Giannis being on the same level. That's the kind of intensity you're seeing in this rivalry.

The story was all in good fun, right?

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Well, not according to Durant. In fact, he claimed it's flat out untrue, as he said in a since-deleted Instagram comment that Williams' story is "a f—ing lie" and said that Williams can "NEVER speak" for him.

In addition to that, the 32-year-old forward took to Twitter and launched an NSFW subtweet at Williams and told him to "Keep me out all that corny ass talk about whos (sic) better."

Needless to say, Twitter enjoyed Durant's attempts to take down Williams and poked fun at the analyst.

Despite all of this, Williams came back with a level-headed response. On the Keshawn, JWill & Zubin show, Williams said that he "stands by his story."

"I was probably wrong for sharing a personal story, but that’s what we do — we share personal stories," Williams said. "It was meant as a compliment. There are levels to this. It was about saying how different KD is. It’s unfortunate that KD felt that way at that moment, but I wish KD nothing but love and all the best success.”

While Williams wouldn't go after Durant, he did say that there were some other people who made comments that he might go after another day.

So, while the noise stemming from this situation isn't over, it appears that Williams is preventing this from becoming a full-out feud between himself and Durant.

Jacob Camenker

Jacob Camenker Photo

Jacob Camenker first joined The Sporting News as a fantasy football intern in 2018 after his graduation from UMass. He became a full-time employee with TSN in 2021 and now serves as a senior content producer with a particular focus on the NFL. Jacob worked at NBC Sports Boston as a content producer from 2019 to 2021. He is an avid fan of the NFL Draft and ranked 10th in FantasyPros’ Mock Draft Accuracy metric in both 2021 and 2022.