Kevin Durant and Dillon Brooks mixed it up during the game at Mortgage Matchup Center on Saturday night won by the the Suns over the Rockets. Durant had one basket in the first hall. (Photo by Chris Coduto/Getty Images)

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PHOENIX – Kevin Durant returned again to the scene of the crime on Saturday night at what’s now called Mortgage Matchup Center where his current Rockets lost to his former Suns, 102-99.

Like many of his 145 games for the Suns during two-plus seasons, Durant looked disengaged floating through a 21-point performance on 5-for-14 shooting, including an off-balance, hotly-contested 27-foot three-pointer that could have tied the score with 11 seconds to go, but harmlessly clanked away.

He had no shots in the first quarter, and one basket on his only shot in the first half, which seems inconceivable for a man who’s fifth in the NBA in all-time scoring with 32,784 points and is earning $44 million this season.

“Why does that matter?” Durant responded when I asked him about his lack of early shooting.

“Well, you can’t score if you don’t take shots,” I explained.

“That’s an inside joke,” Durant interjected. “Sometimes it’s going to go like that. It’s about what we do as a group.”

The joke was on Durant. Unbeknownst to me, I had stepped into an ongoing controversy instigated last week by Rockets beat writer Varun Shankar of the Houston Chronicle, who was standing right next to me when I asked the question with Durant pinned against the visiting locker room wall.

He stared at a white-sheet box score as if that might contradict or prove anything.

During a win over the Celtics on Nov. 2, Durant had 12 points and took only six shots. Shankar took exception to this in that night’s postgame presser.

“What’s that have to do with anything?” Durant said that night. “Jabari [Smith] had 30 last game, he only had 14 tonight. Are you going to talk about his variety?”

“Jabari isn’t the fifth leading scorer in NBA history,” Shankar shot back to his credit.

"My presence alone [on the court] is impactful to the game of basketball,” Durant said. “I don’t have to shoot. I don’t have to dribble, just being out there is going to cause a reaction on defense. So my team is taking advantage of it.”

Durant Is Now One Of The NBA’s Older Statesman

Well, sometimes. Durant just turned 38, quite old these days by NBA standards short of LeBron James, who at 41 has taken his talents to Philadelphia this season and is still thriving. I have to hand it to K.D. He remains entertaining both on and off the court and never shrinks from any skirmish mixing it up on social media like he’s some fan of the game, which he certainly is.

Once during his erratic Suns tenure, I asked him why he cared so much about what some pundit said from afar. They weren’t grounded in the day to day, he said, and were just passing around sometimes unfounded rumors. And there’s solid truth to that.

“You’re around. You’re in our locker room,” he said. “If you want to rip me, rip me.”

I said I had no intention of ‘ripping” him, but I will write what I see. And too many time he’s just disengaged from the game, playing with no passion or energy.

“Are you just watching me all day? Do you have the solo cam on me?’ Durant asked Shankar.

Well, yes. I do it all the time. I isolate on a key player and watch what he’s doing or how a team is covering him. Durant, Devin Booker, LeBron, Steph Curry. They are some of the guys to watch in this league and one is in peril of not paying attention because soon they will all go away.

With the Suns, when Mat Ishbia bought the team in 2023 from the suspended Robert Sarver, he made the mistake of loading up on talent, adding Durant and Bradley Beal to bolster Booker under coach Mike Budenholzer, the Bucks coach who defeated the Suns in the 2022 Finals. It turned out to be a disaster. Beal was always hurt, playing in 106 out of possible 164 games over two seasons and Durant had his moments.

“I played here for 2 1/2 years, bro,” Durant said about his Phoenix tenure. “It’s not that deep. I loved living in Phoenix. It was my favorite place to live in the league. I miss it every day. ”

But when the Suns missed the playoffs in 2024-25, wholesale changes were made. Brian Gregory replaced James Jones as general manager. Jordan Ott came in as coach to replace Budenholzer, the fourth coach since Ishbia bought the team. Neither had any prior experience in these jobs.

Durant was traded to the Rockets for forward Dillion Brooks and guard Jalen Green, who both missed time, Brooks with a hand injury and Green with a recurring hamstring that hamstrung most of this first season in Phoenix. The Suns still won 45 games and made the playoffs.

Ishbia, Durant, And Brooks All Went Viral On Social Media.

“I threw money at the problem,” Ishbia recently told CNBC Sports. “Bringing in super talented players like Kevin Durant doesn’t necessarily lead to championships.”

Durant responded on X that he’d stayed on top of his game, “and at 36 got back this ‘culture’ you love so much.”

“Ay, Matthew [sic] acts like I got arrested for a DUI or [something’],” he added, dragging in Brooks who was recently charged with a DUI in Scottsdale that occurred this past March 6. The matter hasn’t been heard in court yet and is still pending.

Ishbia slapped back on X, telling Durant, “You obviously didn’t watch the clip. Didn’t blame you, but am happy with the culture we are building here in Phoenix.”

Brooks also took exception, saying in an interview he didn’t appreciate Durant throwing him under the bus.

“If you got a beef or you want to have a conversation with somebody in particular don’t bring up nobody else,” Brooks said. “You know what I’m saying?”

No big deal, Durant countered on Saturday: “I have no problems with anybody here.”

This all might have manifested itself on the court. Brooks defended Durant and kept him away from the basket, covering him like a glove, said Ott, who claims to pay no attention to all this social media chatter.

“Dillon had one of those game when for 48 minutes he impacted the game on both sides of the basketball,” Ott said. “He played elite defense and it’s team defense against a guy [Durant] like that. But at the end of the day you need that one-on-one defender and we have him.”

Which brings this all back full circle. Durant didn’t dominate the game. The Suns won. That’s why it all matters, K.D.