I’m honestly sad about what KD seems to feel like he’s had to become. He puts up this tough, “I don’t care about you or anyone else,” front since he signed with Golden State. Publicly, he’s hardened. In OKC, he was so different. A very affable, beloved, kindhearted superstar.

In OKC, he wasn’t the kind of person who’d call sportswriters names, give one-word-answer interviews, or lash out at the media. He was just a good person who loved basketball and really wanted to win. When he had an opportunity with GS, he took it, and he won.

But we (especially me) absolutely tore him apart for that decision. We thought it was weak. So we called him weak. The burner accounts happened. We thought that was fragile. So we called him fragile. It’s reasonable to say the reactions hurt his feelings, and embarrassed him.

How couldn’t they? We (again, myself included) just piled on and on him like bullies in grade school. We wanted him to feel bad about going to GS, so we did everything we could to make that happen. Even when he won, we treated it like it was fake. He could never be legitimized.

At least, not to us. There was nothing he could do to placate our unceasing, constant, vitriol and personal indictments.

From his point of view, becoming the hardened version of himself that we’re experiencing now, was likely the only way he felt he could protect himself.

To him, old KD was the person who got bullied, was weak, and was fragile. New KD had to be aloof, cold blooded, direct, confrontational, and aggressive, to make the voices stop their never-ending attacks.

And to an extent, sadly, he was, and is, probably right.

If he didn’t take this new approach, if he ever let himself be OKC KD again, we’d mistake his kindness for weakness. We’d accuse him of fragility. Sensitivity. We’d accuse him of being all the things he, and so many other athletes, have been taught to despise.

So this is who he’s decided he has to be. He has to cuss out @MichaelRapaport, he has to tweet at @ShannonSharpe, and he has to pretend he doesn’t care about people or what they think, because if he didn’t act that way, we’d call him horrible things. We don’t get nice KD anymore.

And it’s our fault (myself included). Because we (myself included) felt like his move to GS gave us permission to eviscerate him personally and professionally. I still don’t like the move, but it went too far. It all went too far. He didn’t deserve what he got.

This is a long thread; and I don’t imagine really anyone will read it. But if I’m trying to say anything, I guess it’s that I’m sorry to @KDTrey5. You didn’t deserve it. None of it. You didn’t deserve to be called the things you were called, not then, not now.

I’m sorry I participated in it. It was wrong. All of it, from myself, and the collective sports world, added up to turning a good person into a (still good) hardened, distrustful one, that has to be someone I don’t think he is. It’s unfair, and honestly breaks my heart for him.

So with this thread, I just want to encourage KD; you’re not any of those things they (myself included) said you are. You’re good. At basketball. At life. At treating others with care. You’re good, KD. I’m so sorry we (I) ever told you otherwise.

If you could ever find your way back to being OKC KD, then I’ll be so happy for you. If not, okay. But my hope? That you can just be who you want to be, because I know that person is what’s best for the world. I’ll be praying you get that freedom, and I’ll pray we affirm it.