Heat’s Tyler Herro goes way back with Kevin Durant: ‘Me and Kev have been cool for a long time’
Even after Saturday’s verbal spat, Miami Heat guard Tyler Herro insists his respect for Houston Rockets forward Kevin Durant remains intact.
“I got respect for him, and we got respect for each other,” Herro said. “It’s just competition at the end of the day. We both were trying to give a little spark to the game. It was a low scoring game at the start, and we just wanted to get it going a little bit.”
Durant echoed Herro’s sentiment.
“I just think we both needed a little jolt of energy to start the game,” Durant said. “I mean, you saw it, we laughed and joked right after that. I got respect for Tyler, he has respect for me. And those words, they’re just words at the end of the day. We didn’t do nothing too much, it wasn’t too physical on our end. But I appreciate his competitiveness and vice versa.”
Herro, 26, and Durant, 37, both received double technical fouls after exchanging some heated words just seven minutes into the Heat’s 115-105 win against the Rockets on Saturday at Kaseya Center.
With Herro guarding Durant, Bam Adebayo appeared to force Durant into a turnover after rushing over to provide a double-team. That led to the initial exchange of words between Herro and Durant.
But after the Rockets challenged the play, the officials ruled that Adebayo actually fouled Durant. When the Heat and Rockets returned to the court following the officials’ ruling, Durant and Herro kept talking and Durant confronted Herro before teammates stood between them.
That’s when the officials called double technical fouls on Herro and Durant with 5:22 left in Saturday’s first quarter.
“He was saying I couldn’t guard, and I said something to him,” Herro said ahead of Tuesday night’s matchup against the Brooklyn Nets at Kaseya Center. “But we’re competing. At the end of the day, you want to be able to play against the best players in the world and be able to compete like that. That’s what I live for. I love to compete.”
Herro’s relationship with Durant goes way back, with their connection dating back to when Herro was a high school senior in 2018.
“Me and Kev have been cool for a long time,” Herro continued Monday on the future Hall of Famer when asked about the incident. “He used to send me shoes in high school. I’ve been knowing KD for a minute. And yeah, he almost came here last year in the offseason. We were just competing. We were just talking normal competitive [expletive].”
Herro and Durant’s relationship began when Durant recognized Herro on his YouTube channel as part of a series breaking down the top high school prospects in 2018.
“He just reacted to a video saying that I knew how to play the game, I was skilled and all that stuff,” Herro recalls. “And then from there, we kind of just got in contact. And then like I said, he sent me a couple of shoes. And we’ve just been fans of each other. We have respect. I’ve been a big fan of KD my whole life.”
Herro and Durant even exchanged jerseys after a game last season. Herro posted a photo of that autographed Durant jersey on his Instagram on Sunday, acknowledging his respect for Durant hours after Saturday’s quarrel.
“I think media, social media enlightens everything and like brings it to the light, but that’s normal stuff,” Herro said, continuing to downplay the incident despite video of his back and forth with Durant taking off on social media. “We were just competing.”
While Herro revealed that Durant called out his defense, what did Herro to say to Durant that escalated the situation?
“I mean, I said a bunch of things,” Herro said with a grin. “I said a bunch of different things. But we were just competing.”
More Durant respect
Heat coach Erik Spoelstra and Durant have worked together before as part of the U.S. men’s basketball team, and they may do it again in two years.
Durant a recent interview with ESPN, Durant said that he “would love to” play in the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics even though he will just be a few months from turning 40 at that point and has already won four Olympic gold medals. Spoelstra, who has been named the head coach of Team USA for the Los Angeles Games, is intrigued by that possibility.
“Just him saying that is incredible,” Spoelstra said Saturday of Durant’s recent comments. “And that’s the culture of USA basketball. You just want the best American players to raise their hand and say, ‘I want to do this.’ And you can feel his passion for representing the country and the USA on the jersey. He’s been incredible in those competitions.”
Durant, 37, was left impressed by Spoelstra during their time together for the 2024 Olympics. Spoelstra was an assistant coach on the 2024 Olympic team that won gold.
“I’ve always been impressed with coach Spo from afar,” Durant said Saturday. “But to be in the same locker room with him, to see his intensity. His scouts were just like, made me want to run through a wall. He was just so enthused about being an assistant coach on Team USA. And he understood that we wanted to make a statement out there as a team, and he backed us.
“And then on top of that, being a head coach, you don’t get to see a lot of these head coaches in the assistant coach role where they’re on the floor developing guys every day, rebounding, just doing the dirty work. And Spo was great at that. And he made it exciting to come into work every day.”
