In lower than two years, the US males’s basketball crew will probably be in Los Angeles, seeking to defend its Olympic title. Kevin Durant, who will probably be a few months shy of turning 40 years previous when the Summer season Olympics begin, nonetheless needs to be there.
Durant lately spoke at a USA Basketball charity occasion in Southern California and doubled down on his want to play for Staff USA in 2028. It might mark Durant’s fifth Olympics, and each level he scores would lengthen his lead as Staff USA’s all-time Olympic scoring chief, males’s or ladies’s.
Durant, who averaged 26 factors a sport final season for the Houston Rockets, continues to be close to the highest of his sport. His legacy as one of many sport’s all-time greats is safe. However with the Olympics returning to the US, he has a easy cause for desirous to do it once more.
“It’s simply enjoyable, man,” Durant informed The Athletic late final season. “It’s an unimaginable time. You get to journey the world. I don’t know if we’re gonna get to journey the world with it being within the States, however the previous few years, we’d go (to) Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Paris, London, Canary Islands, Madrid … being in locations that modified not simply my perspective concerning the sport, nearly life usually. I’ve been in locations I’ve by no means even thought of being in if it wasn’t for the sport. That have is likely one of the greatest, man. I encourage all people to play for his or her nation.”
Earlier than a sport in opposition to Durant and the Rockets in March, his former Golden State Warriors coach and 2024 Staff USA coach Steve Kerr referred to as Durant the best males’s FIBA participant in American historical past. In spite of everything, Durant has helped Staff USA win 4 straight gold medals. A number of weeks later, Kerr defined why Durant’s expertise interprets so nicely to the worldwide sport.
“No. 1, FIBA is six weeks,” Kerr informed The Athletic. “You don’t have a lot time to construct continuity. You don’t have a lot time to put in a system. Kevin is, like, essentially the most deadly scorer, one of the deadly scorers within the historical past of basketball. So, if that you must get a basket and also you solely have 5 days of apply after which these video games — a sport with totally different guidelines, totally different gamers — you’re going in opposition to guys you don’t know. Kevin Durant’s good for that. Throw the ball to Kevin.”
Former Staff USA coach Gregg Popovich put it much more merely after teaching Durant within the Tokyo Video games in 2021.
“No Kevin, no gold.”
When informed of Kerr’s phrases, Durant took them to coronary heart.
“I’m humbled and honored to get that recognition,” Durant mentioned. “So many nice gamers have performed. They most likely didn’t play so long as me; that’s most likely why I get that. I’ve been on 4 Olympic groups. We’ve gained gold each time, so I’ve simply been round. I present up.
“I believe that’s what my profession has been based mostly upon, simply exhibiting up and letting the chips fall the place they could. … I skilled some nice teaching with Staff USA, and that’s actually what brings me again.”
Longtime Miami Warmth coach Erik Spoelstra, who served as an assistant on Kerr’s employees in Paris, is now Staff USA’s head coach and has lengthy drawn reward for a way he runs the Warmth. What so many members of Staff USA appear to thrive upon is the satisfaction they soak up representing their nation on the world stage. That emotion nonetheless drives Durant to compete.
“The satisfaction of your nation that you just characterize in your small part of the nation on the large stage,” mentioned Durant, who grew up within the Washington D.C. space. “Taking part in with the very best of the very best to ever play the sport. And coached by the very best of the very best. It’s a no brainer to go.”
Kevin Durant wrapped himself with the American flag after the U.S. males’s basketball crew gained Olympic gold in 2024. (Kyle Terada / USA In the present day by way of Reuters Join)
Durant has been so moved by representing Staff USA that he has inspired different gamers to make the most of the Olympic expertise at any time when it presents itself.
“Bol Bol had the prospect to play for South Sudan, and I used to be encouraging him to take action,” Durant mentioned. “I believe he may need been injured, however I’m like, man, that you must go expertise the Olympics. … With the ability to play on that stage and see the satisfaction that individuals have for the place they arrive from, I believe each participant ought to expertise that.”
Kerr witnessed that keenness firsthand. He has lengthy praised Durant for his preparation by the day-to-day grind of an NBA season. With Staff USA, he noticed one thing else. He noticed how a lot Durant loves representing the crimson, white and blue.
“He additionally loves FIBA,” Kerr mentioned. “He loves the expertise of being on a crew, with all these guys who he’s usually competing in opposition to. I believe he likes the journey. I believe he likes eliminating the NBA bulls— that it’s a must to undergo for eight months, and it turns into essentially the most pure sporting expertise of a participant’s life at that stage. Kevin, at his core, he loves basketball as a lot as anyone I’ve ever been round.”
Final season, Durant spoke about that love and what it means to cross alongside knowledge to youthful gamers who grew up idolizing him. He is aware of how a lot representing Staff USA on the world stage has meant not just for him, however for all of the younger gamers who watch him all around the globe.
“You simply by no means know who’s watching you,” Durant mentioned. “It undoubtedly resonates and makes you go more durable. Simply understanding that I can influence folks in a constructive manner all all over the world … I didn’t know that. From turning in your TV, and other people coming as much as me with KD tattoos and s— after I’m in China. Folks developing — I’m in Italy strolling within the background, and other people strolling behind me. There’s 30 folks following me, chanting my title.”
As Durant eyes a fifth Olympics, he does so with an appreciation for what he believes did greater than something to globalize the sport: the creation of the 1992 Dream Staff in Barcelona. Like so many others, Durant believes that assortment of American stars ushered the sport into a brand new period.
“Clearly, the NBA was well-known,” Durant mentioned. “However that was a second the place you will have all the identical gamers on one court docket, and also you’re on the market taking part in in opposition to the world. It’s like, ‘Rattling, that is the very best the NBA has to supply proper right here. Let me tune into this going ahead. Let me see these guys play in opposition to one another now.’ When you have been a fan already in Turkey or Germany: ‘That is attention-grabbing. What is that this?’ Growth.
“After which, our league has grown. … From then to now, the sport has reached so many individuals, man. I’m simply grateful that I can stroll round and other people simply present me respect and love for what I do on the basketball court docket and (for) inspiring some folks. That retains me going, for positive.”
