Suns' rival tries to create Kevin Durant drama (and fails miserably)

One of the best parts of international play at the Olympics is how it brings NBA stars together on national teams. Never is this more noticeable than Team USA, which of course boasts the best collection of talent on the planet.

It is always fascinating to see players like Jayson Tatum and Devin Booker - so often compared to one another in the past - have to put those differences aside in pursuit of a gold medal. Everybody might expect Team USA to win, but it is getting to that destination that is still worth watching.

Not that the Minnesota Timberwolves got the memo, as they decided to use a picture from a scrimmage to try and start some beef. They failed.

Before revealing the image itself - which might look innocent if taken on its own - it is important to point out the likely motive behind posting the picture. The team in question are the Minnesota Timberwolves, who soundly thumped the Phoenix Suns in the opening round of the playoffs.

This was a series that was viewed as the coming out party for Anthony Edwards. He certainly seemed to think so anyway. Throughout that series, Edwards spoke of going against his hero in Kevin Durant, and he outplayed him for the duration of the sweep. With all of that backstory in mind then, get a load of this...

Obviously the Timberwolves are trying to get a reaction out of Durant - and of all of the superstars in the league - he is the guy most likely to bite. The 35-year-old often taken to X to have arguments with complete randomers, when he could be doing literally anything else.

The hope then was that Durant would do or say something that the Timberwolves could then use for content throughout the summer (it is a long offseason after all), while also seeing it as motivation for their group ahead of next season. They might have swatted away the Suns, but the Dallas Mavericks made them look pretty ordinary at times in the Western Conference Finals. Anyway, it didn't work.

Maybe this is Durant getting more wise in his old age. More likely is the fact he knows he's being baited, and is instead choosing to play it friendly, at least until the Olympics are over. Either way, this response was in some ways even worse for the Timberwolves than no response at all.

Had KD ignored the picture, people could have continued to go at him about it. Instead he's made a harmless - and let's be honest not terribly funny - joke to just keep it moving. This won't be the last we've heard of Edwards or the Timberwolves, but it is also the first win for Durant and by extension the Suns since being dumped out of the playoffs. Nice try Minnesota...