Kevin Durant and Charles Barkley, once foes, have buried the hatchet to do a home-and-home interview series on their respective platforms.
For at least the past several years, Barkley and Durant had the kind of beef that makes for great headlines in The Post. In 2019, Barkley said that Durant did not have the “mental makeup” to play in New York City.
“If he’s arguing with these teenagers online, he’s not going to be able to deal with that New York media,” Barkley said at the time. “He’s a great person, he’s a great player. I don’t think he has the mental makeup to play in New York. That’s just my personal opinion.”
Last year, the Nets star gave Barkley an awkward post-game interview filled with one-word answers after a Nets game:
Last January, Durant called Barkley an “idiot” for saying that athletes deserved preferential vaccine treatment, and wrote on Instagram of former-players-turned-media-critics – presumably including Barkley – that “Them old heads need to go enjoy retirement.”
But this is all water under the bridge now.
Durant gave an interview to Barkley, in which he gave thoughtful answers as opposed to those of the one-word variety, on TNT’s “Inside the NBA” Tuesday night, and they taped a podcast that was released Wednesday on Durant’s internet platform, The Boardroom.
In the TNT interview, Barkley expressed his oft-stated qualms with social media and the frivolity of responding to idiots, while Durant maintained that he likes being in the mix and no longer takes it personally. They also discussed The Boardroom, where Durant says he stays involved in projects like their Stephon Marbury documentary from beginning to end, but also allows the talented producers they’ve hired to do their jobs.
Finally, they discussed what it meant for both of them to be included in the NBA’s 75 greatest players list in conjunction with the league’s 75th anniversary.
“It makes it feel like you’re doing something right,” Durant said. “It’s just a real feeling. You put in so much work, to be recognized for something like that. To be in the same conversation with all the greats, something that we can talk about. It’s sweet. It’s one of those honors you always remember. Like you said, I called up my mom, I called my AAU coach from when I was 8-9 years old — people who were around for the journey. You hit them up because they know how special the game is to you.”