Kevin Durant Fined $50,000 For Exchange With Michael Rapaport On Instagram

Brooklyn Nets' star Kevin Durant has been fined $50,000 by the NBA for his exchange on Instagram with actor Michael Rapaport. Really goes to show that the media can talk any way they please and players are expected to let it go. It's too bad we no longer live in a generation where disrespect transitions to a knuckle sandwich.

Here's the exchange for those that missed it:

KD has shown a willingness to engage with the media that past and present athletes never did, and now it bites him. Not saying he should threaten Rapaport, but he just has such a punchable face. Plus, it's not like anyone enjoys input from the actor, so at some point an athlete was going to react.

Shouldn't surprise anyone that Kevin Durant happened to be the one.

But considering KD's deep pockets, he should've hired someone to go kick his tail. Outkick's Clay Travis mentioned via Twitter that the NBA was hypocritical if they didn't punish Durant the same way Leonard was ousted by the Miami Heat. And respectfully, I have to disagree.

Here's reality:

No one actually gives a rip that KD used "homophobic" terms in his barrage of messages towards some afterthought of an actor, just how folks didn't actually care about Meyers Leonard's words. It's not even a white or black issue. What's actually happening here is Meyers Leonard was chastised because he was a perceived "political threat". That's it.

Fans should demand that the NBA stop pretending to care about incidents like this and treat all the players the same. They'll never do it, though, partially because KD is too valuable to the NBA to black list him from the league.

The way to fix the hypocrisy of the NBA is not by pretending to be offended by the words of Kevin Durant, but instead by demanding none of this to matter. It's the only way. Our only hope now is that someone puts up $50,000 for someone, anyone, to slap Michael Rapaport.