The Washington Commanders are advancing to the NFC Championship and have a powerful NBA name in their corner… and in their locker room. On Saturday, as the Commanders celebrated their 45-31 defeat of the Detroit Lions, a special guest joined the party: Phoenix Suns star Kevin Durant.
Durant, who was born and raised in D.C. and is a longtime Washington fan, rooted for his favorite team during the upset. He also threw some well-placed barbs toward Lions running back Jahmyr Gibbs.
Commanders rookie cornerback Mike Sainrisil, who had two key interceptions in the matchup, posted a video to his Instagram Story of Durant with the team after the game.
“Hey, what do you have to say?” —Sainrisil asked Durant.
“Jahmyr, put on your sneakers,” Durant said, referring to the Cartier sunglasses. The mockery caused laughter and exclamations in the Commanders’ locker room.
Early in the matchup, Gibbs, known for his touchdown celebrations, scored the first touchdown of the game and celebrated by imitating a pregame dance Durant did before the 2017 NBA Finals.
Durant did not like the tribute.
“I’m sick of Jahmyr Gibbs. Move somewhere, damn it, bro,” Durant. wrote in response to X’s video.
Gibbs finished with 14 carries for 105 yards and two touchdowns, but the team overall fell short of the Commanders. Both teams put together a historically high second quarter in the high-scoring game, with Washington coming out on top in the end.
After the game, Durant left Detroit with one more coup: a video of the original dance, captioned, “Have a great night, Detroit.”
The Commanders will now move on to the NFC Championship, playing the winner of the Los Angeles Rams-Philadelphia Eagles divisional round game on Sunday. We’ll have to see if Durant makes another appearance in the locker room next weekend.