A lot has been said about NBA superstar Kevin Durant. He’s been called the best player in the game and an MVP. He’s been called a 2x NBA champion, as well as a 2x NBA Finals MVP.
Durant has also been called a snake for joining a Golden State Warriors team that won 73 games in the season prior to his arrival. And Durant has been called a traitor for leaving a franchise that was loyal to him in Oklahoma City.
Still, do fans know the real Kevin Durant? Not just the NBA player who seemingly always speaks his mind on Twitter, but who Kevin Durant really is, as both a basketball player and a human being.
In this week’s Fadeaway World biography, we’ll examine the life and career of “The Slim Reaper” (another name for Durant), Kevin Durant.
The Early Life Of Kevin Durant
On September 29, 1988, Kevin Wayne Durant was born in Washington, D.C. Durant’s parents are Wanda and Wayne Pratt. While Durant was an infant, Wayne abandoned the family, and this led to Wanda getting a divorce and returning to her maiden name: Durant.
Durant has two brothers and a sister, and they were raised by their mother and grandmother, Barbara Davis. This helped shape Durant as a person, and his connection to his mother would be placed on the national stage when Durant won the 2013–14 MVP award.
Durant’s father was a former police officer and assistant basketball coach, and he would later reconnect with Durant when he was 13, and their relationship has become a positive one.
When Durant was 10, he decided he wanted to play professional basketball when he got older. Most parents would humor their children and try to steer them to a more attainable career. Wanda, however, gave her son all the support and confidence to believe he could do it.
Durant practiced hard, and his skills developed. By the time Durant reached high school, he was ready to showcase his skills for National Christian Academy.
Durant would wow the crowd with his play, and after two years, he transferred schools to play at a higher level of competition at Oak Hill Academy. After one year at Oak Hill Academy, Durant transferred to Montrose Christian School for his senior year.
“Back then, I didn’t know it was any different,” Durant said. “I was listening to Coach (Taras) Brown, my mom, my pops. Like, this was where the best competition was, so I would switch schools every year to move up a level.”
Durant would grow five inches between his junior and senior years, and he’d go on to dominate the competition. KD’s play led to him being named the Washington Post All-Met Basketball Player of the Year.
Durant would make the roster of the 2006 McDonald’s All-American Game. In the game, Durant scored 25 points while adding 5 rebounds, 4 assists, and 2 steals. Durant’s team won the game 112-94, and KD was named co-MVP alongside Chase Budinger.
Durant had earned the attention of many colleges, but by the time his senior year started, he had already made up his mind about where he wanted to play college ball at. After his junior year of high school, Durant committed to the University of Texas.
Durant would only play one year at Texas, but boy, did he make the most of it. Most freshmen players are not the stars of their team, but most freshmen are not Kevin Durant.
Durant averaged 25.8 points, 11.1 rebounds, and 1.3 assists per game as he led Texas to a 25-10 record. Texas entered the NCAA Tournament as the fourth seed.
Durant would lead Texas to the second round, where they fell 87-68 to USC. This was despite 30 points and 9 rebounds from KD.
Even with his team coming up short in the tournament, Durant was honored by his individual play. Durant was the unanimous player of the year as he won the John R. Wooden Award and the Naismith College Player of the Year Award.
KD became the first freshman to win any of the national player of the year awards. After the season was done, Durant announced he was leaving school early and heading to the NBA.
Kevin Durant Enters The NBA And Becomes A Star In OKC
In the 2007 NBA Draft, the Seattle SuperSonics selected Kevin Durant as the second overall pick. The Sonics only won 20 games in Durant’s rookie season, but individually, he’d shine.
Durant won the Rookie of the Year Award with averages of 20.3 points, 4.4 rebounds, and 2.4 assists per game. The 2007-08 season would be Durant’s only season in Seattle, but not because he left the team or was traded.
The Seattle SuperSonics moved to Oklahoma City to become the Thunder before the 2008-09 season. Durant wouldn’t see a winning season in OKC until the 2009-10 season when the Thunder won 50 games.
The 2009-10 season would also become the first of three straight and four total seasons where KD led the league in scoring. He averaged 30.1 points per game on 47.6% shooting.
The 2013-14 season would be Durant’s greatest individual season of his NBA career. Durant averaged a career-high 32.0 points per game. He also averaged 7.4 rebounds, 5.5 assists, and 1.3 steals per game.
When the NBA held the press conference for Durant winning the MVP, KD gave an emotional and memorable speech. The best part of Durant’s speech was how he honored his mother.
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“We wasn’t supposed to be here, you made us believe,” Durant said, as he was crying. “You kept us off the street, put clothes on our backs, food on the table, when you didn’t eat you made sure we ate, you went to sleep hungry, you sacrificed for us, you the real MVP.”
The play of KD helped the Thunder achieve a 59-23 record, and that was with Durant’s teammate and second-best player on the Thunder, Russell Westbrook, only playing in 46 games. Durant would lead the Thunder into a deep playoff run before falling 4-2 in the Western Conference Finals to the eventual champions, the San Antonio Spurs.
This became an unfortunate routine for Durant in OKC. He’d led his team to a nice playoff run just to come up short of winning a title.
There was no truer fact of this than the 2011-12 season when KD led his young team on a surprising run to the NBA Finals. In the Finals, Durant averaged 30.6 points on 54.8% shooting and 6.0 rebounds per game.
The problem was Durant’s Thunder met up with a more experienced and veteran-led squad in the Miami Heat. Oh, and the Heat had LeBron James, who was on a mission to avenge his 2011 Finals meltdown vs. the Dallas Mavericks.
The Thunder fell 4-1 to the Heat despite KD’s play. This loss stung KD, but everything would hit the fan in the 2016 NBA Western Conference Finals.
The 2015-16 season was a historic season, to say the least. The defending champion Golden State Warriors were on a mission to prove their 2015 title wasn’t a fluke.
The Warriors went on to break the Michael Jordan-led 1995-96 Chicago Bulls regular season record of 72 wins by posting an incredible 73-9 record. There was no doubt who the favorites to win the title that year was.
The Warriors met Durant’s Thunder in the Western Conference Finals, and most believed the Warriors would either sweep KD’s squad or dismantle them in five games. Both of these outcomes didn’t happen.
Durant led his team to a surprising 3-1 series lead over the mighty Warriors, and it appeared that KD and his Thunder were going to achieve the unthinkable: knocking the 73-win Warriors out of the playoffs.
Then, possibly the second-biggest playoff collapse (behind the next series collapse) occurred. The Warriors stormed back into the series to force a Game 7.
In Game 7, Durant did all he could by scoring 27 points on 10-19 shooting, but it wasn’t enough. The Warriors took the game 96-88 and the series 4-3 to reach the Finals and have a rematch with the Cleveland Cavaliers, where the Warriors would blow their own 3-1 series lead.
After the season was over, questions were popping up about Durant and his future. He was a free agent, and many believed he’d leave OKC, but the question was, where would he leave to?
KD Joins The Warriors And Becomes A 2x Champion
Kevin Durant went from being a beloved NBA player to one of the most hated players in the league with one career-defining move… KD signed with the Golden State Warriors in the offseason before the 2016-17 NBA season.
Durant wrote an emotional piece in The Players’ Tribune, stating his decision to leave Oklahoma City and head to Oakland:
“This has been by far the most challenging few weeks in my professional life,” Durant wrote. “I understood cognitively that I was facing a crossroads in my evolution as a player and as a man, and that it came with exceptionally difficult choices. What I didn’t truly understand, however, was the range of emotions I would feel during this process.
“The primary mandate I had for myself in making this decision was to have it based on the potential for my growth as a player — as that has always steered me in the right direction. But I am also at a point in my life where it is of equal importance to find an opportunity that encourages my evolution as a man: moving out of my comfort zone to a new city and community which offers the greatest potential for my contribution and personal growth. With this in mind, I have decided that I am going to join the Golden State Warriors.”
This move by Durant may have made him public enemy number one in the NBA, but it was also the best decision of his professional basketball career. Durant would arguably solidify himself as the game’s best player in the next two years.
Yes, Durant had incredible teammates around him, like Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson, but Durant proved himself to be the best of the bunch. Durant made this perfectly clear, not necessarily in the regular season, but in the playoffs, and in particular, the NBA Finals.
Durant’s Golden State Warriors reached the NBA Finals in his first two seasons as a Warrior; both times, they ran into LeBron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers. These two NBA Finals would not turn out the way the 2016 NBA Finals between the Warriors and the Cavs did.
The Warriors won the 2017 Finals 4-1 and the 2018 Finals 4-0. In both Finals, Durant won the MVP award. KD averaged 35.2 points, 8.2 rebounds, 5.4 assists, 1.0 steals, and 1.6 blocks per game in the 2017 Finals.
In the 2018 Finals, Durant averaged 28.8 points, 10.8 rebounds, 7.5 assists, 0.8 steals, and 2.3 blocks per game. There was no doubt of Durant’s importance to the Warriors, no matter how stacked their team was.
Durant was now a 2x NBA champion, 2x Finals MVP, 4x scoring champion and an MVP. In the 2018-19 season, Durant wanted to add a third straight title, but things would not go his way.
The Warriors finished the season with a 57-25 record, the best in the Western Conference. Durant played like his usual spectacular self, averaging 26.0 points, 6.4 rebounds, and 5.9 assists per game.
Like before, Durant would up his play in the playoffs. In the opening round against the Los Angeles Clippers, Durant went off scoring 38, 33, and 45 in Games 3 thru 5. Then, in Game 6, KD scored a playoff career-high 50 in the Warriors’ 129-110 victory.
Durant continued his dominance against the Houston Rockets in the second round by scoring 35 in Game 1, 29 in Game 2, 46 in Game 3, and 34 in Game 4. Durant and the Warriors looked poised to capture that sought out 3-peat, then, Game 5 happened.
Durant suffered a right calf strain in Game 5, which would cost him to miss the remainder of the series, which the Warriors ended in Game 6. The Warriors would reach the NBA Finals without KD playing since his Game 5 injury against the Rockets, but the team knew they needed him in the Finals.
Durant missed nine games before returning in Game 5 of the Finals, but he would play less than 12 minutes. KD scored 11 points on 3-5 shooting and 3-3 from three-point land before he suffered a torn Achilles.
The Warriors staff rushed Durant to make a return to the Finals, and many believe this led to Durant not being ready to play, leading to the injury. After the season, Durant shocked the NBA world again by leaving the Warriors to join the Brooklyn Nets.
Kevin Durant’s Time In Brooklyn And His Move To Phoenix
After missing the entire 2019–20 season, Durant returned to play 35 games in the 2020-21 season, and he appeared not to miss a step. Durant averaged 26.9 points, 7.1 rebounds, and 5.6 assists on 53.7% shooting.
The Nets finished with a 48-24 record, which was the second-best in the Eastern Conference. After defeating the Boston Celtics 4-1 in the opening round, the Nets took on the Milwaukee Bucks in an epic seven-game series.
Durant and the Nets took a 2-0 lead and were looking like the favorites to win the series. Injuries to both of KD’s best teammates, Kyrie Irving and James Harden, helped the Bucks back into the series.
Durant put the Nets on his back by putting up an incredible Game 5 performance. KD scored 49 points while adding 17 rebounds and 10 assists in the Nets’ 114-108 victory.
In Game 7, Durant had another epic game scoring 48 points while adding 9 rebounds and 6 assists. With six seconds remaining in the fourth quarter, the Nets trailed 109-107.
KD caught the ball above the three-point line, attacked his defender, and drilled a turnaround shot with one second remaining. The shot by Durant was close to the three-point line, but his toes barely touched the line, making it a two-pointer and tying the game at 109-109.
The game went into overtime, and Durant found himself in a similar situation. Brooklyn trailed by two, 113-111, and Durant took a similar shot with about three seconds remaining as his game-tying shot at the end of the fourth.
This time, KD’s shot air-balled, and the Nets were knocked out of the playoffs.
After the 2021 playoffs ended for the Nets, everyone believed Brooklyn would return stronger and potentially win a title. This would not happen.
The team dealt with turmoil as Durant’s star teammates requested trades and eventually got traded. Durant and his team struggled in the 2022 playoffs, getting swept in the first round by the Boston Celtics.
This season, Durant has been playing some of the best basketball of his career. So far, as of this writing, Durant has played in 39 games and is averaging 29.7 points on a career-best 55.9% shooting and 93.4% from the free-throw line.
Like his teammates, Durant requested a trade from the Nets, first in the summer, which was not granted. Then, privately he requested a trade again once Irving was traded.
On February 9, 2023, Durant was traded to the Phoenix Suns. He is currently recovering from a sprained MCL, which he suffered on January 8. Will Kevin Durant lead the Phoenix Suns to their first NBA championship?
This is yet to be determined, but there’s one thing that has been determined: Kevin Durant is one of the greatest players to ever play in the NBA.
Source: fadeawayworld
