Kevin Durant Defends First Ejection, Wants to 'Move On'
Kevin Durant, Oklahoma City Thunder forward, could have boasted about never being ejected in his six year NBA career before Wednesday night, but now the Christian basketball player is reacting to being asked to leave his first professional game.
Durant, 24, was tossed from Wednesday night's game against the Brooklyn Nets when he disagreed with referee Danny Crawford about a call against his teammate Kendrick Perkins. While Durant earned a technical foul, he was given another after continuing to make his frustrations clear to Crawford in the Thunder's 110-93 loss to the Nets.
Since two technical fouls result in an ejection, Durant was forced to exit the game after scoring 27 points. However, the camera also picked up on the forward mouthing an expletive at the referee on his way to the locker room during his first career ejection.
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After the game, Durant explained how he felt about being forced to leave a game for the first time suiting up over 400 times for the NBA.
"I just thought it was a bad call," Durant told the press after the game. "You get frustrated throughout a game, you show emotion. That's how you can tell you love it."
The forward recalled his statements for curious media personnel and commented on referees being quick to call players out on their actions.
"I said, 'It's a bad call,' " Durant said. "They've got a quick trigger now."
While Durant made it clear that he didn't want to spend too much time talking about his first career ejection, he defended his actions.
"I think I'm allowed to be frustrated, especially in this league. With the ups and downs, the players are allowed to be frustrated," Durant said after the game. "It is what it is, move on from it."
