Kevin Durant Video: Watch NBA Star Shake Michael Beasley in Prelude to Face Mush

The basketball world has been aflutter today with video evidence of Minnesota Timberwolves misfit Michael Beasley giving a spectator at New York City's Dyckman Park the ol' "face-mush" during a pickup game between his Team 914 and Kevin Durant's Team Nike.

And while it would seem to be an open-and-shut case of Beasley allowing his temper to get the best of him with a heckler, his frustration might also be attributable to some on-court humiliation.

Like, say, what Durant does to him in Exhibit A shown above. Pay close attention to how the "Durantula" bides his time, patiently dribbling the ball between his legs, until Beasley slides juuuust close enough to open up a lane along the baseline. Notice how Durant then preys on that opening, leaving Beasley behind for a thunderous slam by the Oklahoma City superstar.

The two-time defending NBA scoring champ may be better known as a volume shooter, though that label clearly hasn't diminished his handles any.

Meanwhile, all Beasley can do is stand there and watch, waiting until after the play to chide his teammates for failing to compensate for his own mediocre defense.

Perhaps it was after this play that Beasley began to hear it from the attendant crowd, sparking a fiery fury in the lanky forward's heart that led to a five-finger affront between him and one of the many haters in the stands.

What I'm really getting at here is that Durant is essentially to blame for Beasley's misgivings.

Or not.

Or maybe Beasley was just upset about union chief Billy Hunter's prediction that the current NBA lockout would consume the entire 2011-12 season, thereby rendering Beasley penniless and without any.

I'll let you decide.