When the Houston Rockets traded for future Hall of Famer Kevin Durant this past offseason, the thought was that this acquisition would be the finishing, beautiful touch on an NBA title contender. The one thing that the Rockets did not have in 2024-2025 was someone as efficient as Durant in getting his own shot, and then actually making them! (NOTE: Jalen Green got a lot of shots for himself, but they didn’t go in nearly as much as we’d hoped.)
The price to acquire Durant was not cheap. Green, Dillon Brooks, and some draft capital were big parts of the package. Durant signed a multi-year extension making him the team’s highest paid player. There was and is a lot invested in Durant.
This was all done with the one negative, Durant-related backdrop — the man is addicted to social media. He is so addicted to social media that one media member asked him, at last week’s All Star weekend, which of video games or Twitter he would give up for life:
Kevin Durant on whether he'd give up Twitter or video games for the rest of his life:
"Twitter because they don't deserve to hear this god level like talk I'm giving to them. They're taking it for granted" 🤣 pic.twitter.com/ouVhr44EDH
— Oh No He Didn't (@ohnohedidnt24) February 14, 2026
Mind you, this is a 37 year old man being asked this question. THIRTY SEVEN YEARS OLD. Ironically, the Twitter addiction came back to roost one day after this question was asked, in the worst possible way — the internet revealed screen grabs of direct messages from an alleged Durant burner account (@gethigher77 on Twitter, now called X).
The direct messages took aim at a number of people around the NBA and in Durant’s basketball life, but the most damaging ones were DM’s that had this alleged Durant burner account heavily criticizing teammates Alperen Sengun for his shooting and defense, and Jabari Smith for his lack of basketball intellect, and I’m putting the latter kindly.
So, with the Rockets’ team chemistry and title hopes hanging in the balance, we waited three days to hear from Durant. The question needed to be asked, “KD, is this you? Did you say these horrible things?” When the time came, here is what we got:
“I’m not here to get into Twitter nonsense. My teammates know what it is, we’ve been locked in the whole season.”
– Kevin Durant on his burner account. 🍿pic.twitter.com/qqQ7tcFUx1
— League Alerts (@LeagueAlerts) February 18, 2026
Okay, here are my thoughts on this:
Kevin Durant’s non-denial says it all
Before hearing from Durant himself, I was giving Durant a lot of grace on the radio on Monday and Tuesday. I leaned to the side of the direct messages being a fake Durant burner account. I figured that Durant seems like an intelligent person, and no intelligent person would engage with strangers in such a way. I felt this way, despite Durant admitting to using burner accounts in years past. So maybe I am the dummy. The bottom line is this — Durant had a chance to deny this account being his, and he said he didn’t want to talk about it”Twitter nonsense” with the media. Again, this is from possibly the most active athlete on Twitter in the history of the platform. Something sticks. I think the burner account is indeed KD.
Ime Udoka’s non-denial feels even worse
After the same practice session on Wednesday, Rockets head coach Ime Udoka was asked about the Durant burner drama. Here was his answer:
Wow, it’s one thing for Durant himself to evade and non-deny. This is a little scary that Udoka, publicly at least, is deferring to the “I’m not on social media” approach. I have to believe that the Twitter-less Udoka is handling this differently behind the scenes. If he isn’t attacking this issue head on, it’s a dereliction of head coaching duty.
Are Durant’s former cities looking at us the way we look at the James Harden stops along the way?
Since leaving Houston back in 2021, James Harden has joined and left multiple teams. He went from Brooklyn to Philadelphia to Los Angeles to, now, the Cleveland Cavaliers. Every fan base in that litany has experiences the same thing — the scintillating thrill of watching an all-NBA scorer, until he flunks in the playoffs and then wants out. At every one of those stops, we in Houston would watch these other fan bases celebrate initially, and shake our heads, and say “They’ll learn.” So, are we the dullards on Durant? Are Golden State, Brooklyn, and Phoenix (Durant’s last three stops) shaking their heads at how silly we sounded this past summer, when the KD trade was consummated? I hope not, but I am guessing so.
In the end, what does this all mean?
The real answer to this question is “We don’t know.” Most Rocket fans are assuming that it was really Durant who said these critical things to strangers about his teammates. In fact, I polled Rocket fans:
#Penderpoll — okay, KD has now answered the question as to whether or not it was truly him sending those DM‘s from a burner account. The video of KD addressing it is in the above post. Watch it, and then tell me, do you think @gethigher77 is KD?
— Sean Pendergast (@SeanTPendergast) February 18, 2026
The fact of the matter, though, is Durant’s non-denial of these allegations may just be his immaturity flashing through one more time, and he is trolling the fan base. Maybe he is enjoying the attention. Worst case, though, is Durant DID say these things, and there ARE fences to be mended. To me, the bigger problems with the Rockets are actual basketball issues — injuries, shooting, and the lack of a point guard. The bottom line is that the Rockets need actual title hopes that can get derailed, before we can really surmise the detrimental effect of Burner-gate.