An unusual element around the rise of current or former athletes in sports media is when they take to reporting. That’s happened more and more in recent years, and it’s led to significant divides. While we’ve often seen athletes yelling at those with more traditional reporting backgrounds because they “never played the game,” it’s quite something to see that happening at ex-players. And that was shown Friday in a feud between Kevin Durant of the Phoenix Suns and ex-NBA player DeMarcus Cousins.
This came following comments Cousins made as a guest on FanDuel TV’s Run It Back NBA show Friday, where he said the Suns had “multiple fistfights” in the locker room this year. That clip got aggregated by the “@TheDunkCentral” X account, and that led to pushback from Durant. And Durant’s comments sparked quite the response from Cousins, which led to a further follow-up from Durant:
I have to contest this 94 footer. This some bullshit to throw on us. Yea yea yea we were trash this year ha ha ha but we NEVER got close to this. NEVER https://t.co/JfjA7wmLa7
— Kevin Durant (@KDTrey5) June 20, 2025
Whoa whoa Boog, I don’t want no problems with you or anybody on earth. I
Promise, all I’m saying is your source is lying. https://t.co/tvSWexCtCb
— Kevin Durant (@KDTrey5) June 20, 2025
An interesting subplot of this is that unlike many shades-of-grey media debates, there is an actual factual answer here. Either the Suns had “multiple fistfights” in their locker room in the 2024-25 season, or they did not. So one of these figures is right, and one is wrong.
But which one? Well, Durant played that entire season for the team and certainly was in that locker room a majority of the times in question. That means there’s some backing for his “we NEVER got close to this. NEVER” claim.
On the other hand, though, Cousins’ claim that “The source was one of your teammates” also seems plausible. It’s quite reasonable that Cousins would be talking to current NBA players. (And maybe these fights happened at moments where Durant wasn’t present.) However, Durant still replied with “your source is lying,” so he doesn’t buy this even after Cousins’ sourcing addition.
Unless anyone else comes forward, we may not ever find out if there were these “multiple fistfights” in the Suns’ locker room this season or not. But it’s certainly fascinating to see a current NBA player go after a former NBA player over the sources he’s citing.
That’s pushback similar to what we’ve often seen in commentary on journalists without a playing career. For Durant, at least, Cousins’ playing background doesn’t appear to make his claims less debatable than they would be if they appeared from a journalist who didn’t play professionally.
And that potentially speaks to a challenge of ex-players trying to use sources. If Cousins had simply opined here, his take would be harder to dispute. But he approached this as a full report, which makes it factually verifiable or refutable. And that seems to have led to Durant’s pushback.