At the end of July, Kevin Durant spent a week in India. He spent time at the brand new NBA Academy in Delhi teaching basketball lessons and visited the Taj Mahal.
It was his first trip to the country.
On Thursday, in an article published on The Athletic, Durant shared his honest thoughts on India.
Those comments appear to have offended some people, prompting Durant to issue an apology on Friday on his YouTube page and Twitter feed.
"Sorry that my comments about India were taken out of context, I'm grateful for the time I've got to spend there and I'm really pissed about how my comments came off, that's my fault, should've worded that better. I spoke about the difference between my imagination and reality there in Delhi and about where the game is compared to the rest of the world. No offense from this side, I'm coming back out there for more camps and cool s---. Sorry..."
Asked by Anthony Slater what India was like, Durant said this:
"Um, it was a unique experience. I went with no expectation, no view on what it's supposed to be like. I usually go to places where I at least have a view in my head. India, I'm thinking I'm going to be around palaces and royalty and gold - basically thought I was going to Dubai. Then when I landed there, I saw the culture and how they live and it was rough. It's a country that's 20 years behind in terms of knowledge and experience. You see cows in the street, monkeys running around everywhere, hundreds of people on the side of the road, a million cars and no traffic violations. Just a bunch of underprivileged people there and they want to learn how to play basketball. That s- was really, really dope to me."
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When asked for an eye-opening moment, Durant painted a picture of his time in Agra, the home of the Taj Mahal.
"Yeah. As I was driving up to the Taj Mahal, like I said, I thought that this would be holy ground, super protected, very very clean. And as I'm driving up, it's like, s-, this used to remind me of some neighborhoods I would ride through as a kid. Mud in the middle of the street, houses were not finished but there were people living in them. No doors. No windows. The cows in the street, stray dogs and then, boom, Taj Mahal, one of the seven wonders of the world. It's like holy s-, this was built 500 years ago and everyone comes here. It's just an eye-opener."
