The former WFAN talk-show host, who now works for SiriusXM, tore apart the Nets and their star forward for skipping the showdown, although Durant just returned from a hamstring injury that cost him nearly two months.

“Let’s go tell [former Knicks coach] Pat Riley, ‘Hey Pat, no [Patrick] Ewing tonight. I know you’re playing the Bulls and [Michael] Jordan, but Ewing’s going to pass because his knees are sore,’” Russo said hyperbolically. “There was many a night in many a locker room when Ewing had to freaking ice his knees, talk to the media. … Every game, sat there with his ice on his knees, and he played night after night after night after night after night! Played his ass off! Night after night! … And I’ll tell you something right now, Ewing wanted to play!”

He went on to bring up other players from past eras who wouldn’t miss a game, like Jordan or Paul Silas or John Havlicek.

“Twice the player that any of these guys are. It makes me sick,” Russo said. “How about freaking Durant say, ‘I’m playing! Get the hell out of here!’”

Russo also threw in a dig at Durant for his Instagram feud with actor Michael Rapaport.

“Instead of fighting Michael Rapaport, how about Durant telling freaking [Steve] Nash and his freaking owner, who’s paying him $40 million, and his GM [Sean] Marks, who’s freaking out of the [Gregg] Popovich school, how about Durant just say, ‘give me the freaking uniform, I’m playing tonight,'” he said.

This story originally appeared on: NyPost - Author:Zach Braziller