Watch Thunder fans shower Kevin Durant with heavy boos in OKC return

Everyone expected Oklahoma City Thunder fans to boo Kevin Durant heavily upon his return to Chesapeake Energy Arena. They did not disappoint.

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Playing in his old home arena for the first time since joining the Golden State Warriors this past offseason, Durant was showered with boos and jeers from the crowd during pregame introductions on Saturday night. Take a look and a listen above.

That intense reaction continued into the game itself, which the Warriors won handily 130-114. The crowd booed every time Durant touched the ball and cheered his every failure, an unsurprising development in the ongoing saga of the most controversial free agent move since LeBron James joined the Miami Heat in 2010. Durant expected to be booed (and beefed up security as an extra precaution), but the reality of a sellout crowd fully against him probably felt different altogether.

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The negative attention started when Durant took the floor for warmups, although that reception included a smattering of cheers, as well:

However, Thunder fans “voiced more support for their team than they did anger towards Durant. Very loud cheers immediately met any positive play for the Thunder, including a position several minutes into the first quarter where Westbrook bested Durant’s defense to find Steven Adams with an assist for a floater. As we wrote in this Friday’s BDL newsletter, the experience was as much about fans’ pride for the Thunder’s success without Durant as lingering bad feelings towards him.

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Still, the Durant-related saltiness was evident throughout the arena. Thankfully, it took a pretty creative form. Fans particularly seized on Westbrook’s sub-Instagram calling KD a “cupcake” in the aftermath of his free-agent announcement:

There were many other kinds of signs calling out Durant as a traitor and soft competitor, too:

The prevailing mood seemed to be sane (for professional sports, at least) — lots of displays of displeasure, but nothing over the line.

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Eric Freeman is a writer for Ball Don’t Lie on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at efreeman_ysports@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!

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