Houston Rockets forward Kevin Durant missed Monday’s game against the Phoenix Suns, due to a personal family matter. The game would’ve been a homecoming, of sorts, for KD. He’ll also miss Wednesday’s game against the Golden State Warriors, due to the same reason.
The early thought \*should be\* that we hope all is well with Durant and his family. If he has to miss more games, let him. Life is bigger than basketball. Or any sport.
We don’t deserve clarity or an explanation. Again, life is bigger than anything else.
Some have speculated the cause of Durant’s absence. It’s been theorized that maybe Durant has a child on the way. Or maybe Durant lost a loved one.
Let’s stop probing and speculating. We don’t need to know the reason.
There was even a reporter who tried to grill Rockets coach Ime Udoka on exactly why Durant wasn’t suited up. When Udoka stated that it was due to personal reasons, the reporter pushed and pushed.
Because that wasn’t good enough. Apparently they thought THEY deserved to know the specifics.
They masqueraded it by telling Udoka that his explanation leaves the door open for people to fill in the blanks with whatever justification they please. Udoka stood ten toes down and essentially said mind your business.
The whole situation makes me a bit uncomfortable. And I’d like for people to personalize things, a bit.
At your job, you likely aren’t tight with everyone on the org chart.
If you had something personal that caused you to need to step away from work, would you owe EVERYONE an explanation? Or just your direct supervisor?
We all know the answer to that.
Furthermore, you wouldn’t even want everyone to know what’s caused you to miss work, although you obviously couldn’t prevent them from gossiping and speculating.
You’d hope that your boss wouldn’t delve into specifics of why you’re out of office but you wouldn’t be able to prevent that either.
But you would deserve and be entitled to a modicum of privacy, on a personal level. As a human being.
Athletes are no different, regardless of their platform, influence, or affluence.
Let’s treat Durant like you’d also wish to be treated.
The game of life is bigger than the game of basketball.
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