Karen Durant

About

Karen Durant refers to a nickname for a character in a viral video of what appears to be a middle-aged woman playing one-on-one basketball with a teen boy. The woman performs a layup and scores a point on the boy to which the filmer screams "Buckets!" The nickname is a combination of the pejorative name for white women Karen and professional basketball player Kevin Durant.

Origin

On May 10th, 2020, TikToker @prezzyprezz shared the original video. The post received more than 350,000 views, 81,000 reaction and 800 comments in less than 24 hours (shown below).

Spread

Following the post, some on TikTok began referring to her as "Carol Baskets," a reference to Carole Baskins from the Netflix Tiger King (examples below).

That day, Twitter account @WhiteBballPains tweeted the video with the caption "Karen giving BUCKETS." The tweet received more than 4.8 million views, 22,000 likes and 4,100 retweets in less than 24 hours (shown below).

Karen giving BUCKETS 😂😂 pic.twitter.com/NNLXdDRnkv

— White Bball Pains (@WhiteBballPains) May 10, 2020

Minutes later, Twitter user @Goodie_MAB shared the video from @WhiteBballPains and added the caption "You gotta retire immediately." The tweet received more than 115,000 likes and 25,000 retweets in less than 24 hours (shown below).

You gotta retire immediately pic.twitter.com/Io4yEvYxG9

— Jimmy Gambino (@Goodie_MAB) May 10, 2020

After the @WhiteBballPains post, the name "Karen Durant" grew in usage. That day, Twitter user @SlickTweets_ tweeted the video with the caption that featured the female-equivalent first names of several professional basketball players. "Karen Durant. Stacey Mcgrady. Lucy Doncic. LauRen James. Stephanie Curry. Kristina Paul. Paulina George." The post received more than 41,000 likes and 11,000 retweets in less than 24 hours (shown below).

Karen Durant. Stacey Mcgrady. Lucy Doncic. LauRen James. Stephanie Curry. Kristina Paul. Paulina George. pic.twitter.com/ZqfYPxOn4D

— Bobby Axelrod (@SlickTweets_) May 10, 2020

Various Examples

Everyone’s gangsta until Karen Durant pulls up 😳 pic.twitter.com/nZ2o0F0lV3

— 𝒦𝐸𝒱𝐼𝒩😈 (@PlayoffCeltics) May 10, 2020

my therapist: Karen Durant isn’t real, she can’t hurt you.

Karen Durant: pic.twitter.com/1FEPYHbHbl

— bonk (@ThePatP) May 10, 2020

Search Interest