It’s been a busy week for Michael Rapaport. After his defamation lawsuit against Barstool Sports was tossed by a United States District Court Judge, Rapaport tarnished Kevin Durant’s reputation by sharing offensive direct messages from the Brooklyn Nets star forward.
Tuesday evening, Rapaport called into The Michael Kay Show on 98.7 ESPN New York to discuss the incident. According to Rapaport, High Pitch Erik of The Howard Stern Show and Cameo fame alerted him that Kay, Don La Greca and Peter Rosenberg were discussing his social media quarrel.
The DMs in question took place over multiple conversations between Durant and Rapaport, beginning after the Nets forward was short with Charles Barkley and TNT’s Inside the NBA crew during a postgame interview last December.
After the interview, Rapaport tweeted that Durant is “super sensitive about everything.” Durant slid into Rapaport’s DMs the next morning with, “U a bitch…”
Throughout the ensuing months, Durant’s replies and insults became more vulgar, as shown by the images Rapaport shared on Twitter.
According to Rapaport, he became friendly with Durant during the former MVP’s final season in Golden State. He also noted to The Michael Kay Show, that some of his responses to Durant’s DMs were removed from the shared images.
“I first thought he was talking crap how he talks crap,” Rapaport told The Kay Show, noting that he was filtering himself for terrestrial radio. “So, during that exchange, it went from friendly banter to he made threats, the threats that you read.”
“And what’s excluded from the responses is me basically going, ‘Is this dude serious?’” Rapaport continued. “And then I told him, ‘You’re not doing anything to me. You must not know who I am. You’re doing nothing to me. And if I see you, you’re doing nothing to me. And I promise you you’re doing nothing to me. And I’ll meet you anyplace, anytime. I’ll come courtside to your games. You, Kevin Durant, are doing nothing to me.’”
There was more foul language in Rapaport’s responses to Durant as the two continued their private message conversations. The final one coming Wednesday, when Rapaport believes Durant crossed a line by mentioning his wife, which drove the actor and comedian to make the DMs public.
“He started a conversation by saying, ‘I’m gonna spit in your face,’ You’re not spitting in my face,” Rapaport told The Kay Show. “That’s not friendly banter. If I go, ‘Oh, Peter Rosenberg, yo, you look like you put on some weight,’ that’s ball-breaking. You’re not telling me we’re gonna spit in my face and then bring up my wife and think we’re cool. We’re not cool. We’re not cool.”
Rapaport rashly attempted to rationalize why Durant might have gone from friendly banter to unacceptable threats.
“I don’t know what he got his hands on out there in Brooklyn. I know he’s on pain medication,” Rapaport said. “I don’t know. Who knows? I’m not saying anything. I’m just saying maybe he’s bored.”
Maybe Durant really did believe nothing was off limits with Rapaport, knowing the comedian has shot his fair share of insults. After Rapaport shared the DMs, Durant gave a half-hearted apology.
“Me and mike talk CRAZIER than this on the regular and today he’s pissed….My bad mike, damn!!” Durant tweeted.