A Cary teen asked the question that led to NBA star Kevin Durant’s ill-fated tweets
A Cary High School student who shot a question to Kevin Durant on Twitter got more than he expected in return – a revealing and reportedly genuine response from the NBA star.
Cole Cashwell, 16, tweeted at Durant’s @KDTrey5 handle Sunday evening, saying “man I respect the hell outta you but give me one legitimate reason for leaving okc other than getting a championship.”
Cashwell on Thursday said he sent the message with the mindset “what’s the worst that could happen?” He said he was shocked and “didn’t understand why he would respond to me.”
Durant played nine seasons for the Oklahoma City Thunder before signing last year with the Golden State Warriors and claiming his first NBA championship. Thunder fans weren’t happy that he left Oklahoma.
Durant replied to Cashwell with two now-deleted tweets that offered new insight into the career move, according to The Oklahoman.
Bro he has fake accounts he comments with on tweets to him pic.twitter.com/8iq2CQbyI7
— Kyle Phernetton (@Ochocuatro) September 18, 2017
In third person, according to the Oklahoma City newspaper, Durant replied, “He didn’t like the organization or playing for Billy Donovan. His roster wasn’t that good, it was just him and russ (Westbrook). Imagine taking russ off that team, see how bad they were. Kd can’t win a championship with those cats.”
The reported tweets have since been deleted, though they live in screenshots on Cashwell’s account.
@Complex is this a story pic.twitter.com/qTYMnUjkmS
— dis alot (@ColeCashwell) September 18, 2017
Video from a TechCrunch event in San Francisco Tuesday shows Durant apologizing for the tweets, saying “I happened to take it a little too far,” and calling the criticisms both “childish” and “idiotic.”
Kevin Durant calls his criticisms of Thunder, Billy Donovan "childish" and "idiotic" at Tech Crunch in SF pic.twitter.com/2Y0zwWyDKi
— Anthony Slater (@anthonyVslater) September 19, 2017
Cashwell is neither a Thunder fan nor a Warriors fan. He pulls for the Los Angeles Clippers, but said he is a NBA fan in general.
He said his peers didn’t believe him, at first, when he told them about the response.
“They thought I was joking,” he said. “It was cool cause I’ve never had that happen before.”
Aaron Moody: 919-829-4528, @Aaron_Moody1
This story was originally published September 21, 2017 at 4:30 PM with the headline "A Cary teen asked the question that led to NBA star Kevin Durant’s ill-fated tweets."