Kevin Durant Is the GOAT (on Twitter)

Kevin Durant is one of the most lethal scorers in the history of the NBA. He can hit from all levels of the floor and is the president of the 50/40/90 club, but there’s a place he rarely misses: Twitter dot com. As a Poster, KD has all the necessary tools: a willingness to get testy with fans, the ability to talk both basketball and the latest pop culture phenomenon, a 7-foot-5 wingspan that enables him to snare his phone whenever a stray thought pops into his head, commitment to the game, and, most importantly, the fact that he really brings himself to the platform. This is why Kevin Durant is the greatest (poster) of all time.

Early career highlights

There are seemingly unbreakable records in the NBA: John Stockton’s career assists number, Wilt Chamberlain's 100-point game, and Durant’s number of unforgettable tweets. All these records may be impossible to top, simply because they came from a different era. It’s hard to imagine an NBA superstar today tweeting “Scarlett johanneson I will drink ur bath water,” as KD did in 2011. Or that “Erykah badu thicker than a kindergarten pencil.”

During the early phase of Durant’s career, he put up one Hall-of-Fame worthy tweet after another. Turns out, he isn’t the only member of the Nets offering skepticism about our solar system.

Really makes you think, huh.

But what makes KD’s Twitter presence so special is his willingness to bring what at least feels like his real self to the platform. Back before he was the under-the-magnifying-glass superstar, he tweeted his most random and inner thoughts, frequently about the crushes he was nurturing. He once tweeted the terrible breakfast-centric pick-up line “Girl you like a bacon and egg sandwich..you look good.” And what is probably his greatest tweet ever concerns girls he likes or is just starting to like:

Inside the mind of an all-time hooper

As his Twitter presence evolved, Durant focused more closely on his true love: basketball. “I come to Twitter to argue about sports and music Bro..it’s a simple concept for me,” he said recently. Durant will get into a hoops conversation with anyone. If FartBoy420 wants to criticize Durant for leaving OKC to join the 72-win Warriors, then FartBoy420 better be prepared for Durant to hit back. This has inspired some of Durant’s best work, such as: “Look at u, emotional.” While his insistence on going back and forth with (hating) fans only gives them more reason to call him “soft,” Durant wants to know why he can’t use Twitter like everyone else. It’s the fact that he really does use the platform like his tweets aren’t going to be on SportsCenter later that makes him so special.

But Durant isn’t afraid to go after folks his own size, either. The result is some truly great insight into how one of the greatest basketball players of all time thinks about this era of the NBA and how the game is played. He got into an illuminating back and forth with Action Network writer Matt Moore about the efficiency of the mid-range game that resulted in this gem:

Take that for data!

He’s explained why he changed his mind on superteams (“the decade”), argued with Kendrick Perkins over who was to blame for the Oklahoma City Thunder failing to win a championship (“u played hard tho champ”), and even accidentally explained why he eventually left the team on his later-exposed burner account: “He didn't like the organization or playing for Billy Donovan. His roster wasn't that good, it was just him and russ”. Durant’s even waded into the thorny GOAT convo:

Bigger than basketball

Durant, as we know, is a versatile scorer. He has more to offer than just hoop takes. Over the last couple of months, followers of KD have found out who he thinks could take Batman villain Bane in a fight one-on-one (not Batman, not Killmonger, but Superman) and who he thinks will come out victorious in the new Mortal Kombat movie (“SubZero looks locked tf in”). When the trailer for Godzilla Vs. Kong dropped, Durant went with the former and wondered why Godzilla wasn’t being load managed after being at it for more than a century. OK, so most of these are thoughts on who would win one-on-one matchups, but that’s a topic KD admittedly has a lot of authority on!

He’ll also weigh in on other celebrities using his initials (“U have to relax with the KD talk, your name is KASHDOLL”), give a Lil Durk NBA comp (Monta Ellis), or weigh in on the new Drake EP. In an era when nearly every other athlete fills their Twitter feed with sanitized sponsored posts from a corporate partner or copywriter-approved tweets promoting their latest project—and KD does plenty of that, too—Durant also wants you to know that “Iron man couldn’t get busy without the suit.”

Commitment to the game

Most people see Durant’s burner account as an embarrassing Twitter faux pas, but really it’s proof of his commitment level. Durant knows better than anyone that greatness requires a lot of time in the gym, and extra reps wherever you can get them. What better way to do that than to maintain multiple accounts? Years after first getting caught, Durant says that he still maintains multiple fake accounts. I barely like Twitter enough to update my one main account, but this is why Durant is the GOAT.

Durant’s love of Twitter is well documented. In 2010, he said “Twitter is better than goin to da club…” And a tweet from Monday night explains why his Twitter game remains undefeated: it’s all about the mindset. “There’s No relax champ,” he wrote in reply to someone who told him to chill. “No relax when I’m on Twitter. I’m on 10 until the second I close the app.” May that never change.

Originally Appeared on GQ