Kevin Durant Sides With Marcus Smart in Fan Shoving Incident

After shoving a verbally abusive (and possibly racist) Texas Tech fan on Saturday, Oklahoma State guard Marcus Smart was suspended for three games. Both Kevin Durant and Metta World Peace put their support behind the kid on Sunday. Per the Oklahoman:

“I just put it like this,” Durant said. “If you wouldn’t say that if we were walking down the street, then you should keep that to yourself.”

“I played in that place my one year at Texas, and those fans say some crazy stuff to you,” Durant said. “But he’s a (19)-year-old kid, heat of the moment. It’s easy for you guys to judge him because you’ve never been in that situation, but I’m sure he regrets it, made a mistake and I’m sure he’ll learn from it.”

Durant even went as far as to say, “I’m not sure I would have reacted any different.”

“At 19 years old, when I came out of St. John’s, I was fresh out the hood, fresh out of Queensbridge,” World Peace said. “So my mentality was still a struggle, defensive and things like that. So I wasn’t really conscious.

“But I’m 34 years old now. (Smart’s) a young kid. I wish I would have listened when I was a kid, to my elders or to people who had my best interest at heart. And then I wish I would have been more conscious at my age. Those are two things that if you were to reach out to a kid like Marcus, a talented kid, a future leader in the community, you would tell him those things.”