Kevin Durant apologizes for critical comments about India

Kevin  Durant led Golden State to an NBA title this past season.

Credit: Cindy Ord

Credit: Cindy Ord

Kevin Durant led Golden State to an NBA title this past season.

Golden State Warriors star Kevin Durant tweeted an apology Friday for saying that India is "20 years behind" and other comments critical of the country, Fox News reported.

The comments stemmed from an interview Durant gave Thursday to the sports website the Atlantic, Durant recently visited India and was blunt about the culture shock he experienced.

It’s a country that’s 20 years behind in terms of knowledge and experience,” the website quotes Durant as saying. He added that residents of India were "just a bunch of underprivileged people there and they want to learn how to play basketball."

Durant also said he was disappointed with the conditions near India’s famed Taj Mahal monument, saying he was expecting “holy ground, super protected, very, very clean.” But instead, he saw “mud in the middle of the street.”

Durant also said that houses were unfinished but people were living in them. “No doors. No windows ... stray dogs and then, boom, Taj Mahal, one of the seven wonders of the world,” he said.

The reaction from India was swift.

"Maybe you need to be educated on a place you deemed 'rough' and '20 years behind,' wrote actress and writer Chhaya Nene, in an "open letter" published by the American Bazaar.

Durant posted a message on Twitter, saying he was “sorry that my comments about India were taken out of context.”

Durant said he intended no disrespect and intends to return to India to run more basketball camps for youth, Al Jazeera reported.

During his visit to India, Durant helped set a Guinness World Record for the world's largest basketball clinic, with more than 3,400 Indian youths taking part, according to a the Bleacher Report.