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Rivers doubled down by saying Green is a future Hall-of-Famer, but not because of his offense. “You were the luckiest basketball player I think I’ve ever seen,” Rivers said. “You were drafted to a franchise with a Hall of Fame front office, Hall of Fame coach, the greatest shooter of all-time and perhaps a top-five player of all time … not to mention one of the most lethal scorers of all time and arguably a top-10 player of all time, Kevin Durant, the same guy you chased off because you talk too much. “There are clips of you getting a rebound and driving in a straight line and getting a wide-open layup because everyone’s fanning out to guard the actual talent on the team. Steve Kerr made your career. How dare you? Coming at me, ‘Oh, I wish I could give my son $200 million if I was a coach.’ Yeah, the NBA doesn’t give coaching jobs to guys who may or may not sucker punch one of the players and staff.”
Austin Rivers responds to Draymond Green for his, “disrespectful,” comments yesterday: pic.twitter.com/7ZV2fJg2Ts
— Tomer Azarly (@TomerAzarly) May 5, 2026
Serge Ibaka: “Best OKC player of all time: Shai or Kevin Durant?” Chet Holmgren: “I’d say probably Shai.” Serge Ibaka: “Shai or Russell Westbrook?” Chet Holmgren: “Uh, Shai.”
Despite the loss, multiple high-level team sources still believe their young core can contend for the next decade. Those same sources said Udoka will remain an essential part of the team's future. Durant too.
While Durant publicly dismissed the situation as "Twitter nonsense," team sources said the team took the posts seriously and proceeded under the assumption that Durant was at least associated with them. After players returned from the All-Star break, Durant discussed the situation with his teammates in what sources described as "more of a team discussion than a meeting." According to those team sources, Durant said enough that the discussion moved on to other issues that had been simmering within the team throughout the first half of the season.
"I've heard that there were a couple people who were bothered by what he said on the burner account but none of them were in our locker room," one Rockets source said, referring to other players who were referenced in the X direct messages. "I think Kevin might've been worried about it being a distraction to the team. But literally no one cared about it. The guys [he] mentioned are not sensitive about stuff said about them online."
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They've probably heard worse in their own locker room, the source said. Between Adams' off-color humor and Udoka's tough-love coaching, Houston's young core has developed relatively thick skin. Not to mention, the source explained, younger players are used to the pitfalls and perils of social media. "Good things came out of both those discussions," the source said. "They got s--- off their chest."
Internally, however, sources stressed to ESPN that no one on the team or within the organization had an issue with Durant not appearing on the bench during Game 3. "Would the optics have been better if he was on the bench? Sure," one team source said. "But no one had any problem with it. We all knew how hard he was working to rehab and how much he wanted to play."
Interviews with team sources and those with knowledge of the team's operations reveal that the VanVleet injury, and the season-ending ankle injury to Steven Adams later on, impacted the team in ways that extended off the floor. Beyond the team's glaring lack of playmaking, their absences created a massive leadership void that Durant and the team struggled to fill.
Durant was predictably brilliant on the court throughout the 2025-26 season, averaging 26.0 points, 5.5 rebounds and 4.8 assists while playing in 78 games, but team sources said his "moodiness" took some getting used to and wore on the team's young players throughout the campaign, a dynamic that was exacerbated without VanVleet and Adams as buffers.
Do you have to be really careful on your chats and threads, what you’re saying? You have to, regardless of who you are. You’ve got to be careful. Yeah. But with your profile, right? Someone else can see it and take a screenshot of messages and get you in trouble. Is that a factor?” Steven Adams: “I think it’s a factor. There’s evidence of that, I think, but if you do some digging, it just really depends on who you look at. But yeah, typically, you’d want to be pretty careful. But, you know, depends on what you say, I guess.”
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Several league sources with close ties to Rockets players indicated the social media situation was a significant distraction, one that was never truly resolved internally. Kevin Durant never discussed the matter in any detail publicly, saying only that he was “not here to get into Twitter nonsense.” Privately, league sources said his teammates agreed to keep the matter in-house while focusing on basketball. It is unclear whether Durant ever clarified to his teammates if the account belonged to him.
Will Guillory: Ime Udoka on Kevin Durant's progress in his ankle rehab: "The mobility is probably the biggest (issue). There is some pain. That's something he'd have to tolerate. ... Certain movements are bothering him for sure. He's done some things on-court, but he's limited with those. When you can't do specific movements that hurt you or bother you, you can't progress."
Tim MacMahon: The Rockets are very sensitive and this has been this has been months long running now. They're very sensitive about the vibe, the perception of the vibes. And I'll just tell you: Has there been a bit of an emotional roller coaster with Kevin Durant being thrust into a leadership role that he was never intended to be in? Yes, there has been. Has there been a massive media overreaction to KD not sitting on the bench in game three? Yes, there has been. Brian Windhorst: That's not what I'm referring to. I'm referring to social media stuff. Tim MacMahon: Well, that too. And look, that was, there was a discussion had among the players and they moved on from it, is what I was told. But like that's part of the KD when I say there's been an emotional roller coaster with KD this season. That's obviously a big part of it.
