Kevin Durant on Laura Ingraham’s commentary: 'To me, it was racist'

LOS ANGELES – The timing was perfect.

While social media was still buzzing Friday about Laura Ingraham’s segment on Fox News, where the host told LeBron James and Kevin Durant to “shut up and dribble” rather than share their views about President Trump as they had in a recent joint interview, people across Los Angeles were benefitting from NBA athletes who refused to “stick to sports” and took part in nine charity events during All-Star weekend. Funny how that tired trope doesn’t come up when players are investing their time and money to give back to society.

While Ingraham would later put out a statement claiming there was “no racial intent” behind her words, Durant simply doesn’t agree.

“To me, it was racist,” he told USA TODAY Sports while shaking his head.

James, who drew much of the focus of Ingraham’s criticism, is one of the most charitable athletes in all of pro sports. The LeBron James Family Foundation benefits hundreds of students in his hometown of Akron, Ohio. There’s an Akron public school on the way that will be financed by the foundation, and Boys & Girls Clubs all over the country have reaped the rewards of his generosity. The same goes for Durant, who has a charity foundation of his own that focuses on helping kids from low-income backgrounds.

Celtics' Jaylen Brown: Laura Ingraham's comments were 'ridiculous' and 'insulting'

For Durant, who spent much of his Friday in Culver City for his NBA Cares experience with the Baby2Baby organization, this kind of commentary comes as no surprise. Sadly, the Golden State Warriors star is numb to this kind of discussion.

In between his time talking to kids and helping the group that has distributed 34 million items to the needy in the last six years, Durant elaborated on his thoughts.

Q: So how did her comments hit you when you first heard them?

A: “It didn’t hit me. Ignorance is something I try to ignore. That was definitely an ignorant comment. I do play basketball, but I am a civilian and I am a citizen of the United States, so my voice is just as loud as hers, I think – or even louder. I can’t focus on that. I think we’re doing some good things out here, using our platform, and I think what me and LeBron did with Uber (and UNINTERRUPTED) the other day when it came out, I thought it was great. I thought a lot of people enjoyed it. I got so many encouraging texts from it. A lot of people enjoyed what we had to say, a lot more than just politics, which we didn’t even talk about. It’s just life that we talked about.


Source :- usatoday