Kevin Durant And Steve Stoute Talk Athletes Using Their Platforms To Speak Up And Why Black People Shouldn’t Vote For Kanye West: “I Don’t Want Anybody Black Running Around Voting For Kanye West”

Kevin Durant opens up about the #BlackLivesMatter movement, the responsibility athletes have in their communities, and why he thinks nobody, especially Black people, should vote for #KanyeWest.

Durant, 31, is an all-star basketball player for the Brooklyn Nets, and he’s also an all-around businessman. He’s invested in more than 40 companies, including Postmates and investing app Acorns. In 2018, his foundation, Kevin Durant Charity, announced it would be committing $10 million to help bring the College Track academic program to his hometown in Maryland.

And earlier this year, he expanded his Boardroom Show to an entire Podcast network, launching a variety of sports podcasts, including The Boardroom: Out of Office. In a recent episode, Durant sat down with his long-time friend and marketing executive #SteveStoute. One of the first things the two discussed was their initial life goals and desires. “I guess I ask this to both you and Kevin was there an inflection point in your teenage years where you realized that you had a mission in life that what you were gonna do for a living, or what you were gonna do in this world, was going to mean something?,” asked podcast host Rich Kleiman.

“I started to understand what my purpose is around, again with basketball, by how many people can really be touched by what I do on the floor every day,” said Durant. “So, how I moved, once I started to realize that, how I moved on the day-to-day just started to change. It started to evolve. I started to become more professional as each year, started to pass and, you know, then, you know, how I moved outside of that just, you know, how I chose my friends, what situations I wanted to put myself into, who I wanted to talk to, just started to change based off of the scale that I started to develop.”

Durant then touched on why it’s so important for athletes to use their platforms to promote social justice and fight for equality for all. “For one, I think we continue to… ’cause we do a lot in our neighborhoods, we do a lot in the communities already, and for us using our platforms to speak about it is definitely cool, it’s definitely good to raise awareness. But at this point, I’m ready to see more action, you know? But I think… I think a lot of players are invested in these communities that they play in, that they grew up in, especially in the grassroots in the black community,” said the baller and businessman.

“So a lot more guys, I think we got more allies now than anything, and I think that’s the great part about it is, that the awareness, you know, everybody’s consciousness has been raised since the quarantine. But on top of that, more people are starting to listen to each other about these social issues,” he said. “But for players, you know, we have a huge impact in these cities we play in but, by just playing on TV, by just being in the NBA. But once we really get down to the grassroots of these neighborhoods we’ve been at, and really helping these people… Really getting into the field of helping these people, I think we can make more change. But for… I think a lot of athletes and entertainers have definitely been giving back, especially with these foundations that they’ve been, you know, putting together.”

Stoute then touched on why it wouldn’t be wise for anyone, especially Black people, to vote for Kanye West. “I don’t want Black people voting for Kanye West… I don’t want anybody Black running around voting for Kanye West. If you’re gonna vote for Donald Trump and you choose Kanye West, instead of Donald Trump, great. That will help the Biden campaign. But I don’t want Black people who were thinking about voting for- for Biden voting for Kanye West, in the markets, in the areas that he’s registered as a candidate. That’s going to hurt us.”