WASHINGTON — Oklahoma City Thunder forward Kevin Durant, who was raised in Seat Pleasant, Maryland, unveiled his new shoe, the KD8 P.G. County for sale Wednesday. And though the Nike sneaker is intended to pay tribute to his hometown, local officials have taken issue with the name.
The @nikebasketball KD8 ‘P.G. County’ https://t.co/tHya0szV02 pic.twitter.com/rbq00Oi9kE
— Nike.com (@nikestore) November 25, 2015
According to NBC 4, the abbreviation from “Prince George’s” to “PG” was a point of contention among county supervisors, as the term is, to some residents, “a pejorative.”
“We would certainly prefer that it was ‘Prince George’s County,’” Barry Hudson, the spokesman for county executive Rushern Baker told NBC 4, saying that they reached out to Nike upon learning of the name.
But not everyone believes the semantic hair is worth splitting. Melvin McCray, a former coach of Durant’s in Seat Pleasant, points out that the star has donated tens of thousands of dollars to the Seat Pleasant Activity Center.
“Whether it’s ‘PG County,’ whether it’s ‘Prince George’s County,’ I think we all should just enjoy the moment and just embrace it,” McCray told NBC 4.
As The Washington Post pointed out, Durant began his 2014 NBA MVP acceptance speech by referencing his hometown, saying “I come from a small county outside of Washington, D.C., called P.G. County.”
