In his illustrious NBA career that has now spanned 20 years, Dallas Mavericks star Dirk Nowitzki has seen it all.
Nowitzki played during the latter parts of the 1990’s era all the way into today’s newer, faster-paced game. Nowitzki has also noted of all the differences off the court, especially with the meteoric emergence of social media in the NBA world. One of the more prominent social media users in the NBA also happens to be one of the best on the court is Warriors forward Kevin Durant. Durant got in a recent spat with CJ McCollum and Nowitzki gave his two cents on the ordeal when he recently appeared on Dan Patrick’s Podcast (h/t Uproxx).
“I don’t follow him on Twitter, but obviously it’s tough not to see what’s going on,” Nowitzki said. “I just think overall, and in general, I don’t know why you would get engaged with fans talking trash. I like having fun with it. I get hit up on Twitter every now and then in my mentions. ‘Hey, you’re old. Go away. Retire.’ Or something like that. To me, it’s fun. You’re not supposed to be sensitive about it. That’s how I look at it.”
“I’m not sure why KD feels the need to respond to some of the stuff,” Nowitzki said. “Twitter is just such a place for tough guys and a lot of hate. I take it with a smile on my face. You can’t take yourself too serious on there.”
Dirk Nowitzki is certainly speaking candidly and accurately on the experience that NBA players, and professional athletes, in general, go through on social media. Fans will often try to get under the skin of these players hoping for a reaction and Durant allows this to happen quite often.
Though his most recent interaction was with a fellow NBA player, Durant has been known for the thin skin he often proves to have on social media. The internet allows anyone to say what they please and they should almost never be taken seriously depending on the context.
Durant often lets random comments get to him and should work on doing a better job zoning out all the unnecessary extra noise. He’s a back-to-back world champion and may want to let his play on the court do the talking, similar to what Nowitzki is eluding to with his recent comments.
