DALLAS — Any more fuel needed to added to the heated, ongoing rivalry between the Dallas Mavericks and the Phoenix Suns -- a feud that's been going strong for at least two years now -- another chapter has suddenly been added to the story.
As the Suns players entered the arena for warmups prior to tipoff in the Thursday, Feb. 22, game at the American Airlines Center in Dallas, a pair of Mavs fans shouted that Suns superstar Kevin Durant was "a b*tch" -- and did so audibly enough for Durant to not only hear their insult but to feel compelled to confront them over their choice of words.
In footage of the incident captured by WFAA's Jonah Javad, Durant can be seen stopping on a dime mid-jog to turn around, walk to the edge of the court and approach the fans who'd addressed him.
The fans initially smiled at the reaction their shouts had garnered, with one fan even holding out their hand as if to shake Durant's.
Seconds later, the fans faces turned from proud and gleeful to concerned and apologetic.
As one of the two began launching into an explanation about how they "host a podcast about sports," Durant waves the fans off and walks off toward the other end of the court, where his team was engaging in its warmups as planned.
In a second video also captured by Javad, Durant can be seen returning to where the fans were standing, and interrupting American Airlines Center security -- keeping them from kicking the fans out from the game.
Prior to returning once again to his teammates, Durant offered the fans a bit of advice: "Don't act like [that]. You're a grownup."
This is not the first time an interaction between players and fans have gone south during a Mavs-Suns contest at the AAC this season.
Just last month, Mavs superstar Luka Doncic got into it with a fan who, while wearing a replica Suns jersey of Doncic rival Devin Booker, yelled out in the third quarter of a tightly contested game that Doncic looked tired and needed to get on a treadmill.
Unlike the fans on Thursday night, the fan from that January game was ejected from the arena.