Dejounte's comments turns him from beloved into villain overnight

"Thank you Dejounte, for embodying what it means to be a Spur," read the San Antonio Spurs' official Instagram post in their thank you to the departing All-Star. "I Love You Forever," replied Dejounte Murray in his familiar yet unconventional way of capitalizing every word in a sentence.

It was one of many cordial, respectful exchanges between the organization and its star that occurred in the 24 days since the Spurs decided to dive head-first into a rebuild by dealing their cornerstone. Of course, that's to be expected, as San Antonio has frequently made it a point to part amicably with their players, assuming an uncle doesn't interfere.

"They just want the best for Dejounte," said Murray to ESPN in a recent interview after the trade. "That's something you got to respect. At the end of the day, that's the Spurs organization. They're first class."

It was a nice couple of weeks of mutual respect after a trade that rocked the entire Spurs community, myself included. The day the trade was announced, my entire Air Alamo chat group spent the evening reminiscing, regretting, and wishing things had gone differently. We talked about the dark days ahead yet still had to get over it quickly and look forward to the rarest of rebuilds in San Antonio, hoping it'll be quick and relatively painless.

Dejounte Murray takes the bait from a random internet troll

Then, an internet troll decided to do what they do best and ruin everything -- at least, in the eyes of some Spurs fans. In an Instagram post from Murray saying farewell to the Spurs and their fans, a faceless user commented: "Good luck getting to the 2nd round. At least we got the picks, and we're building around Keldon." Of course, I added some punctuation because, well, it's a comments section.

In response, Murray appeared to take a shot at the Spurs' well-established system in San Antonio. "The way that system is set up, you're going to be losing for the next 15 years! The problem is bigger than basketball," answered Dejounte. Again, the quote was very much cleaned up by me grammatically.

Upon first coming across the quote, I was so convinced it was fake that I only did minimal research before claiming the entire thing was a fraud on Twitter. Within minutes, I was swiftly corrected and deleted my tweet. Lesson learned. I guess I just really didn't want to believe Murray had decided to go there so unnecessarily.

It took me about 45 minutes to track down the original comments so I could verify them with my own eyes, but I eventually did:

After the jump, I get into why Spurs fans have the right to take this personally.

Spurs fans have a right to react however they'd like

Before I get into my own thoughts on the matter, let me do a little prefacing. Just as with any situation, there are several ways to take this comment. Many were quick to point out that Dejounte recently lost his grandmother and could just be acting emotionally at an emotional time.

That's a perfectly valid response, and for anyone who would like to brush these comments off for that or any reason, I have nothing against them. Another way to take the comment was that it was said as a frustrated response for getting negative comments on an otherwise positive post about a franchise that loves him.

After all, Murray later followed up the comment by saying how deeply he loves the fans and how his comments had nothing to do with the "real fans." He didn't exactly address the organization itself though.

I can also understand the perspective of people like highly-respected Spurs writer Matthew Tynan on the matter. Dejounte gave his all for a franchise that he repeatedly said "saved his life" and yet was repaid with negative comments on Instagram. Obviously, he isn't going to like it.

Then again, I can tweet right now about saving puppies and still somehow get a negative comment or two. That's social media -- and I've learned to mostly ignore that stuff. Murray, on the other hand, has never shown an ability to have a thick skin throughout his career.

There are dozens of examples of Dejounte blocking people on Twitter for the most minor reasons. Heck, I'm still blocked by him to this day for posting this defensive lowlight of Bryn Forbes last year (which I actually find hilarious).

The bottom line is Spurs fans have invested so much into Dejounte that they should feel free to react however they'd like to react to his comments. Feel like it's nothing at all? Fine. Think he's the next Kawhi? That's your prerogative. Get it all out in the form of tweets and texts. Hey, even apply to Air Alamo if you want to and get your words published. Just don't capitalize every word.

Since I've earned this platform over the past few years, it's time for me to share my own thoughts.

I'm not mad -- I'm just disappointed.

It was an absolute joy to see Dejounte Murray make the All-Star team last season. He was one of the few bright spots in an otherwise forgettable season for the Silver and Black, and I remember celebrating for hours the night he was announced as a replacement for Draymond Green. When he was traded, the opposite emotions ran through me -- after all, I'm still a fan above all else.

When you're emotionally invested in someone, you might have a tendency to react emotionally to certain events. It's part of why most people in San Antonio still despise Kawhi Leonard, who was on track to be a multiple-time NBA Finals MVP Award winner before a member of his family decided he needed to go to Los Angeles.

I'll admit I'm reacting with a lot of emotion here. My immediate thoughts: after the Spurs took a gamble on him, nursed him through an ACL injury, and, in his words, saved his life, he's this quick to fire shots at them over a meaningless comment? Surely, he wasn't referring to the organization with these comments, right?

But the comment "you're going to be losing for the next 15 years! The problem is bigger than basketball" -- can it be taken any other way? What about, "all that inside s--- fake though?" I just have a hard time seeing either of those as anything but digs at the franchise that first gave him a real shot.

Maybe Dejounte meant something completely innocent by this comment and was talking about the disadvantage San Antonio has as a small market? Another theory is he's talking about the system of tanking in general, but that doesn't take 15 years unless you're the Kings. In either case, hey, maybe be a little less vague with your comments, will you?

Am I guilty of doing the same thing Murray does often -- overreacting to something that doesn't even warrant a reaction? Maybe, but I'm not the only one. Maybe reacting to trolls makes him feel better, and writing this has the same effect on me.

Maybe Dejounte will clear the air soon and make amends with Spurs fans, even if, as he says, he never meant them any harm. But he established a long history of tweeting and immediately deleting controversial posts he shared, even if they were minor things. This one stayed up, and there has to be a reason.

Given how he blossomed in San Antonio and had one of the best individual seasons on record for the Spurs, will I continue to root for him in the future? It's very possible. After all, I know he tends to get carried away with reacting to people on social media firsthand. Maybe he deserves the benefit of the doubt.

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Maybe we'll never know what Murray meant with his comments on Monday. In any event, we know Coach Popovich and the entire organization are going to handle everything, as Dejounte said, in a first-class way. In the end, that's all that really matters.