Come on. Athletes put in late night work all the time. They don't make a point of loudly drawing the press's attention to their willingness to do so in such a transparent way. Even Kobe would usually plant those hard work stories through Woj or something instead of being so blatant about it.
Also, while athletes do the self motivation shtick all the time, it's usually sincere largely because it's at least grounded in some sliver of reality. Like Draymond at the beginning of last year talking about people disrespecting the team's 2015 title because of the injuries to their opponents. But nothing Durant says here makes a lick of sense:
- Nobody has ever questioned his drive.
- They've called him a coward, but that was for choosing by far the easiest path to a title that any elite free agent player has ever chosen, not because they think he's scared of the late-night workouts. Unless he's planning to ask for a trade at the end of his next late-night workout that tag's not going anywhere, fair or not.
- There is zero chance that anyone has said that GSW's season is over or that they're the worst team in the league or that he should feel like the world is going to end. That's way beyond stupid, and makes the whole thing sound silly and fabricated and oversensitive, not intense and borderline crazy like a KG rant.