Kevin Durant Excels at Basketball, Struggles at Beer Chugging

Former MVP Kevin Durant leaving the Oklahoma City Thunder to join the already championship-anointed Golden State Warriors was easily the biggest news of this year’s NBA season. As such, many sports pundits described the playoffs as a referendum on Durant and his decision. By claiming his first championship ring, as well as the title of Finals MVP, Durant passed the test with flying colors. But as soon as the celebration began a new referendum began… on Kevin Durant’s beer drinking. And the results aren’t as impressive.

Shortly after the Warriors clinched the championship by winning Game 5 last night in Oakland, Durant and company could be seen celebrating by chugging beers in the team locker room, with players, Durant included, even wearing ski goggles to protect their eyes from all the alcohol flying every which way. SB Nation wrote that “Kevin Durant slamming beers … is the perfect NBA Finals celebration,” posting an animated GIF of the festivities.

However, just 20 minutes later, the sports site had a different take: The chugging was a fake! Because though the GIF shows Durant slugging back a beer and irreverently tossing the can with glee, other angles of the celebration showed that the MVP was actually far superior at wasting his beer than drinking it.

“Kevin Durant does not like beer,” wrote Twitter user @_MarcusD2_ alongside a different GIF that shows Durant chugging a beer only to spit it right back out. Another clip shows Durant attempt to do the famous “Stone Cold Steve Austin beer smash” only to discover that bashing two beer cans together hard enough to cause them to burst forth with their delicious barley juice isn’t as easy as WWE superstar Austin made it look.

As Yahoo! Sports pointed out, during his post-celebration press conference, the Durant admitted that he hadn’t had much beer chugging practice recently. “I’m talking too much at this point,” he told reporters. “I had a couple too many beers. I haven’t had a beer since February.” Those last two sentences actually say a lot. The first implies that unlike, say, Wade Boggs (who infamously claims he drank 107 beers in one day), Durant considers himself a bit of a lightweight. More importantly, with the second statement, Durant admits he’s apparently not a diehard beer lover seeing as he went a third of a year without sipping any suds.

Overall, “Chuggate,” as you might call it, should be seen as little more than some humorous jibing; there’s certainly no reason to get the commissioner involved in this one. More importantly, the dude just proved he’s one of the best basketball players on the planet. The fact that he’s only halfhearted in his willingness to chug Bud Light (of all things) may actually reflect positively on his character. Here’s an idea: When Durant wins his next championship, how about the Warriors have some real beers waiting for him?