Rockets’ Kevin Durant directs trash talk at World team entering All-Star weekend

Kevin Durant isn’t losing any sleep over how competitive the All-Star Game is going to be. He’s also not buying the narrative that the so-called “old heads” are the problem.

Durant joked Wednesday that he’s on an “old head” squad with LeBron James, Stephen Curry and Kawhi Leonard for this year’s event, then flipped the conversation on its head.

“You should ask the Europeans and the World team if they’re going to compete,” Durant said, laughing, via ESPN’s Michael C. Wright. “If you look at Luka and Jokic, let’s go back and look at what they do in the All-Star Game. Is that competition? … But you’ve got to worry about the old heads playing hard?”

Durant didn’t stop there.

“These dudes be laying on the floor. They’re shooting from half court,” he said. “But now we’re questioning the Americans?”

The league is debuting yet another new All-Star format, splitting players into three teams for a U.S. vs. World round-robin event Sunday night in Inglewood. Commissioner Adam Silver believes national pride will raise the intensity. Durant is taking the wait-and-see approach.

“I can read between the lines,” he said. “It’s just an overall topic everybody’s been talking about.”

When told Victor Wembanyama plans to go all out, Durant shrugged.

“We’ll see,” he said. “He said that last year, too.”

Durant’s stance was simple. Talk is easy. Proving it on the floor is something else entirely.