Few athletes of Kevin Durant’s stature interact with social media haters as often as the Golden State Warriors superstar, and the reigning NBA Finals MVP may be even more prolific than we ever thought.

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Since Durant has jumped into his Twitter mentions for a tweet-storm roughly once a month after winning his first championship, it came as no surprise that he responded to this late Sunday night:

What was surprising, though, was not only the content of Durant’s since-deleted responses (saved by Twitter users @Ochocuatro and @harrisonmc15), but the fact he answered in the third person:

Forget that Durant’s Thunder — featuring reigning regular-season MVP Russell Westbrook and supporting cast members Serge Ibaka, Steven Adams, Andre Roberson, Enes Kanter and Dion Waiters — were a Klay Thompson 3-point barrage in Game 6 away from reaching the 2016 Finals (and possibly knocking off the Cleveland Cavaliers for a title), why is Durant defending himself in the third person?

This led many internet sleuths to believe Durant controls one or more Twitter accounts to support his verified account and merely forgot to switch usernames before posting these tweets. It is an odd practice others, like Skip Bayless, have employed before, and one Durant may also use on Instagram.

Of course, there are a couple more possible explanations as well. Maybe he was hacked, although it sure seems unlikely that someone would hack into Durant’s account just to defend him on Twitter. Or maybe one or more members of Durant’s camp with access to his social media jumped to KD’s defense, only to realize they were logged in under his name. That sounds only slightly more plausible.

Whatever the reason for Durant’s latest Twitter drama, this will do nothing to mend fences with Westbrook and other ex-teammates upset about the way he left Oklahoma City. Neither will Durant’s cupcake shoes or the cupcake hat he’s hawking — both shots at Westbrook and the OKC fans who had previously adopted former Thunder center Kendrick Perkins’ “cupcake” term to describe KD as soft.

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That all seems to fly in the face of what Durant told USA Today in late May:

Durant has spent the past year insisting he’s not bothered by social media followers who believe he took the easy road to a championship by leaving the Thunder for the 73-win team that beat them in the 2016 Western Conference finals, while at the same time responding to tweets like this …

… with stuff like this:

It’s why his newest Nike shoes, featuring soles with Golden State’s playoff record and his Finals stats over comments like “can’t beat ’em join ’em” and “they didn’t need him to win,” are kind of comical, because for every time Durant claims not to be bothered, he seems to reveal how much he actually is.

And this latest social media faux pas might be the most revealing of all. If indeed a former MVP created multiple Twitter accounts to defend himself under a pseudonym, it would follow that not only he is bothered by the traitor narrative, but also more motivated by the belief that his Thunder teammates were never going to be good enough to compete for a title than he’s previously indicated.

Meanwhile, a Twitter manhunt is underway for which accounts may have been Durant’s alternates — proof the NBA is the most ridiculous sports league 12 months a year. The Warriors make their first trip to Oklahoma City for a game against Westbrook and Paul George on Nov. 22. Get your popcorn ready.

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Ben Rohrbach is a contributor for Ball Don’t Lie and Shutdown Corner on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at rohrbach_ben@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter! Follow @brohrbach

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