Kevin Durant

Kevin Durant (born September 29, 1988, Washington, D.C., U.S.) American professional basketball player who won the 2013–14 National Basketball Association (NBA) Most Valuable Player (MVP) award and established himself as one of the best players of his generation while only in his early 20s.

(Read James Naismith’s 1929 Britannica essay on his invention of basketball.)

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Durant was a basketball prodigy as a youth, becoming one of the best prospects in the thriving Washington, D.C.-area basketball scene by his early years in high school and an All-American in his senior season. He attended the University of Texas, where as a freshman he led the Big 12 Conference in scoring average (25.8 points per game), rebounding average (11.1 rebounds per game), and blocked shots (67). He was also a first-team All-American and the first freshman to earn consensus national College Player of the Year honours. He elected to end his college career after just one season and was selected by the Seattle SuperSonics with the second overall pick of the 2007 NBA draft.

Durant was the lone bright spot in Seattle during his rookie campaign, as the team’s new owners demanded a publicly funded arena that the city refused to finance, and the team’s threat to relocate to another city kept fans away in droves. Durant averaged 20.3 points per game that season and was the runaway winner of the NBA Rookie of the Year award. His dynamic play could not heal the rift between the team and the city, however, and at season’s end the Sonics moved to Oklahoma City and became the Thunder. The relocation had no noticeable effect on Durant as he increased his scoring, rebounding, assists, and steals averages in his second season. He began a streak of five straight All-Star Game appearances and first-team All-NBA honours during the 2009–10 season, when he also led the Thunder to the franchise’s first playoff appearance in its new home. In 2011–12 the Thunder—behind Durant’s 28.5 points per game in the postseason—advanced to the NBA finals, where the team lost to the Miami Heat in a five-game series.

The 6-foot 9-inch (2.06-metre) forward proved to be an increasingly difficult matchup as he honed his outside game—Durant could shoot over or run past plodding post defenders and tower over smaller guards. Beginning with the 2009–10 season, the dynamic Durant led the NBA in total points for five straight seasons and in scoring average four times (he finished second in 2012–13). In his dominant 2013–14 MVP season, he set career highs of 32 points and 5.5 assists per game (along with 7.4 rebounds per contest). The following season saw Durant play in just 27 games because of a fracture in his right foot and a troubled recovery process. He returned to form in 2015–16, averaging 28.2 points per game and a career-high 8.2 rebounds per contest that season. In the playoffs, Durant led the Thunder to a 3–1 series lead in the conference finals over the Golden State Warriors, who had set an NBA record during the regular season by amassing 73 victories, but Oklahoma City ultimately lost the series in seven games. During the following off-season, Durant shocked the NBA by leaving the Thunder in free agency to sign with the Warriors.

In 2016–17, playing on the most talent-laden team of his career, Durant continued to thrive with the Warriors, scoring 25.1 points per game while helping Golden State post the most wins in the league (67). The Warriors then set an NBA record by opening the postseason with 12 straight victories en route to a Western Conference title. The team’s dominance continued in the NBA finals, as the Warriors lost just one game to the Cleveland Cavaliers en route to capturing the league championship. Durant averaged 35.2 points per game in the finals and was named finals MVP for his performance.

Durant averaged 26.4 points and a career-high 1.8 blocks per game during the 2017–18 regular season. He once again excelled in the playoffs, leading the Warriors to another NBA title with a sweep of the Cavaliers. His stellar play in the finals—he averaged 28.7 points per game—earned Durant his second finals MVP award.

Durant had another dominant regular season in 2018–19, averaging 26 points per game and earning his 10th consecutive All-Star honours. He strained his calf during the Western Conference semifinals, but the Warriors managed to advance to the NBA finals without him. Golden State went down 3–1 to the Toronto Raptors in the series before Durant returned to attempt to rally his team to victory. In the second quarter of his first game back, he suffered a devastating tear to the Achilles tendon in the same leg of his previous calf strain, an injury that kept Durant off the court for more than a calendar year. (The Warriors ultimately lost the finals in six games.)

During the off-season in 2019, Durant signed with the Brooklyn Nets but was unable to play until the start of the 2020–21 season (which was shortened due to the COVID-19 pandemic). Shortly thereafter the team signed James Harden, and he joined a star-studded lineup that, in addition to Durant, included Kyrie Irving. Many predicted that the Nets would win multiple NBA championships. Although a hamstring injury forced Durant to miss more than 20 games, the Nets finished the regular season in 2021 as the number two seed in the Eastern Conference. Backed by his strong play, the team advanced to the conference semifinals, where it lost to the Milwaukee Bucks, the eventual champions. In the 2021–22 season Durant missed nearly two months because of a knee injury. Although Brooklyn made the playoffs, the team was defeated in the first round. During the off-season, Durant requested a trade. In addition to disappointments on the court, the team endured controversy off it. In 2021 Durant was fined by the NBA for “using offensive and derogatory language on social media” in a feud with actor Michael Rapaport. And Irving was at the centre of various scandals, including accusations that he was anti-Semitic. Midway through the 2022–23 season, Durant was traded to the Phoenix Suns.

In addition to his professional exploits, Durant was a member of the U.S. men’s national basketball team that captured a gold medal at the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympics and at the 2020 Tokyo Games (which were held in 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic).