Kevin Durant was unhappy with local media favouring Warriors star Steph Curry: Report

Kevin Durant signed with the Brooklyn Nets during last year's offseason as a free agent. Before the Nets, he played three years with the Golden State Warriors, where he won two back-to-back NBA championships alongside Steph Curry. While there have been various rumours on why Durant left the Warriors for the Nets, recent reports suggest that Kevin Durant was unhappy with the preferential treatment Steph Curry received from the Warriors media. 

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Steph Curry media representation: Kevin Durant was unhappy with the preferential treatment Steph Curry received?

The Athletic's Ethan Strauss recently recalled an incident where Kevin Durant was once upset about an article Strauss had written. The incident is also included in Strauss' book The Victory Machine: The Making and Unmaking of the Warriors Dynasty. His article had been about Durant and his contract, where Strauss talked about not envying the former Warriors star for having leverage in his contract. 

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Though Ethan Strauss stated that he had a reason to write what he did, Kevin Durant was apparently not impressed. He believed that the media was trying to get into Steph Curry's good books 'at his expense'. He further added that Durant constantly got into arguments with Warriors fans, 'accusing' them for favouring Steph Curry. Later, he was once asked if Steph Curry or Kyrie Irving was the better player, to which Durant said he would have to sit down and analyse. 

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Steph Curry media presence bothered Kevin Durant?

The article mentioned in Strauss' piece in January, talks about the Warriors needing to keep Durant happy at the cost of efficient play. As per Strauss, the Warriors were performing below expectations only to placate their two-time Finals MVP, who would be entering free agency in summer. He called the Warriors out for being a team that wanted to make Durant happy over being the team that played well. While mentioning Steph Curry, Strauss wondered how much this gameplay will affect Curry's offence. The article was written after the Warriors game against Houston Rockets.

However, the rumours about Kevin Durant being unhappy because of the treatment Curry was receiving were already there. People believed that while Durant helped the team with the 2017 and 2018 titles, he wanted equal support from the fan base and media that Curry received. Reports claimed that as Curry was drafted by the Warriors and helped the team reach its peak, Durant would take some time before gaining the same amount of love and recognition from the fans. 

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Durant joined the Nets with an Achilles injury and was sidelined for the entire season. After the NBA 2019-20 season was suspended due to the coronavirus pandemic, Kevin Durant was one of the players who tested positive for COVID-19. A week ago, Durant, along with the other Nets members who tested positive, was cleared of all COVID-19 symptoms. He also participated in the NBA 2k players only tournament. Recently, there have been reports about the Kevin Durant Oakland house being sold for $5,998,888.