Not enough was made of the flagrant flirtation between Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving during a Team LeBron practice at All-Star weekend in Charlotte on Saturday. These two superstars looked like they were on a first date.
Get a load of this.
The physicality only seemed to bring them closer.
Irving and Durant spent a good chunk of the session playing one-on-one while giggling and smiling at one another. Perhaps it was the proximity to Valentines Day — love was in the air. There was also some tough love, with the reps getting competitive at a few points. Even those physical moments, when Durant was backing a much-smaller Irving down, seemed to be done with a levity, like they were sharing a pre-game glass of wine.
The endearment wasn’t isolated to that one-on-one. They had a moment when they were both signing autographs. Irving tossed a Golden State jersey at Durant, who then found an Irving jersey and spiked it on the floor. They were like the adorable kindergartners, throwing sand at their crush.
The losers of this interaction, of course, were the poor folks who shelled out for those jerseys and almost lost them (while probably not getting autographs). The winners of these interactions remain to be seen.
Could the New York Knicks play beneficiary? Could the Boston Celtics? Could another team emerge as potential hosts for both stars?
Durant and Irving can enter free agency during the upcoming offseason, which means they could end up on the same team. Judging from this warm interaction, they seem to enjoy being teammates. Maybe they’ll begin to figure out how to become teammates for longer than one meaningless All-Star weekend fling. Perhaps they’re trying to make this relationship legit.
