Although Kevin Durant is easily one of the game’s greatest players to ever lace up his sneakers, he’s faced a myriad of criticism over the years.

Well, mainly on two fronts. And both are pretty baseless.

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(And no, I’m not biased.)

Durant has drawn the “team-hopper” moniker, which is par for the course in sports leagues these days, especially the NBA. It’s a player-driven league.

Players owe it to themselves to seek what they deem to be the best situation for their careers. It’s been happening for decades.

Charles Barkley did it 30 years ago when he joined the Houston Rockets. LeBron James has done it several times.

The other criticism Durant has faced is regarding his social media presence.

People feel an NBA superstar and all-time great shouldn’t spend a significant amount of time on Twitter.

(Or X, but Twitter still sounds better. In fact, does anyone even call it “X”?)

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The premise is that he should be spending all of his time in the gym, working on his game and building upon his craft.

Right. Because that’s what we do in our everyday jobs, right?

(Hopefully you can sense the sarcasm).

Durant has really embraced the fan interaction aspect of the game that we don’t usually see superstar athletes do.

Which he should garner praise for.

In a short time with the Rockets, Durant has endeared himself to the Rockets Twitter community.

Especially after Friday’s Twitter post, in which Rockets Twitter account @RocketsEdits (who is a must follow, I should add) tweeted that he’d be taking an absence from social media until Rockets point guard Amen Thompson scored 30 points.

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“Not tweeting again until Amen Thompson scores 30 or more points”

During Friday night’s victory over the Phoenix Suns, Thompson scored 31 points on 12-of-17 from the field.

Durant replied to the tweet, posting the Druski meme.

Rockets fans relished in the moment, noting the unique opportunity to interact with one of the greatest players of all-time. It’s unique that Durant even knew the tweet existed.

That type of accessibility isn’t normal. Again, it’s become frowned upon, in Durant’s case.

He gets scrutinized for it. But fans and fanbases appreciate it and don’t take it for granted.

It’s far from the norm.