Kevin Durant is at it again.
The Phoenix Suns forward stirred buzz on NBA Twitter Wednesday when he shared a since-deleted tweet about Denver Nuggets star Nikola Jokic.
“I don’t think Jokic wants or cares to be a star,” Durant apparently wrote on Wednesday, just hours before the Miami Heat host the Nuggets in Game 3 of the NBA Finals.
“Go to work and go home, FaceTime his horses and hop in the pool.”
The reported tweet has since been deleted, but not before it made its way around the internet via screengrabs.
Durant appeared to make the comments in a quote-tweet of a clip from the “The Dan LeBatard Show with Stugotz,” during which LeBatard suggested that Jokic would be a bigger star if he were American-born.
“If he were American, good god would he be a star,” LeBatard said. “Same personality, same exact personality … a white dude dominating the NBA?”
LeBatard went on to liken Jokic to NBA legends Magic Johnson and Larry Bird.
“He’s Magic and Bird and America hates him. What?” LeBatard said.
It’s unclear why Durant deleted his tweet.
In a separate post, someone wrote, “Hey why did you delete that tweet lil bro!?”
Durant responded with: “Here’s your response lil bro. Enjoy.”
After the Nuggets eliminated the Suns in the conference semifinals in May, Jokic said he’d be spending his time off between series watching his friend race horses and swimming in the pool.
Jokic, who won back-to-back league MVPs in 2021 and 2022, isn’t flashy or loud for a player of his caliber.
The 6-foot-11 All-Star leads a private life outside of his NBA career, and is rarely seen outside the court.
He spends the NBA offseason in his native Sombor, Serbia with his wife Natalija and their daughter Ognjena, who they welcomed in September 2021.
Jokic is protective over his private time at home, according to The Denver Post.
When the Nuggets star won his second consecutive MVP award in May 2022, Denver coach Michael Malone, then-team president Tim Connelly, and some team personnel surprised Jokic in Sombor to hand-deliver the trophy.
Team brass worked with Natalija to pull off the surprise, which took place at a horse stable.
Jokic said in a 2017 profile with Bleacher Report that when he hangs his jersey up for good, he wants to return to the couple’s native Sombor.
“After my career is over, I’m gonna go back there,” he said at the time. “It’s super slow — not too much going on — but you have everything.”
