“I look at basketball as a platform to inspire people to work hard, to achieve their goals.”
Kevin Durant
A statement evoking such intense emotion can be expected from none other than the Warrior’s real fighter Kevin Durant who has evolved to be one of the powerhouses of the game. How this 6’10 small forward has grown from an ordinary boy to one of the highest-earning basketball players is commendable.
His physical endurance and tall personality enable him to exhibit guard-like skills and this is the reason he has an upper edge of scoring on the opposition in whichever way he wants to. Some of his key magical moves include posting up, 30-foot 3-pointers, ankle-breaking crossovers, fading away and transition dunks.
Moreover, the craze for Durant can be seen in the NBA fantasy leagues where his fans go completely mad to witness his exceptional moves and aggressive style of playing. He is extremely popular for his remarkable scoring capability. He grabbed four scoring awards that made him one of two basketball players to achieve the same in five years.
Durant has allowed the fantasy owners to grab many key wins with the help of some of his most amazing steals, blocks, and defensive shots.
Want to know more about Durant’s superpowers? Then let’s take a look at his professional as well as personal lives in brief.
Was Kevin Durant’s Early Life Full Of Struggle? How The Basketball Passion Inside Him Got Out to the World?
Durant was born in Washington DC on September 29, 1988, to Wayne and Wanda Pratt. He has three siblings, one sister Brianna, and two brothers Tony and Rayvonne. His childhood was tough as his father left the family and eventually his parents opted for a divorce.
His grandmother, Barbara Davis raised him in his early years. When he was 13 his father appeared again and took him to watch many basketball tournaments across the globe. This was the primary reason how the passion for the game grew in K Durant.
The legendary basketball player began to play the game since his school days and was lucky to have teammates like Ty Lawson, Michael Beasley, and Greivis Vásquez. During his college life, Durant played basketball for the Texas Longhorns and grabbed the John R. Wooden Award which paved the way to the beginning of Durant’s prosperous basketball career. From there, he was picked in the NBA draft.
How Was The Start To The Slim Reaper’s Professional Career?
The Initial Span With Seattle SuperSonics (2007-08)
Kevin Durant started his professional basketball voyage from 2007 when he was a part of the NBA draft for Seattle SuperSonics. In two years he performed excellently for the squad and scored his first-ever winning shot against Atlanta Hawks on November 16.
He was declared as the NBA rookie of the year at the end of 2007-08 season with an amazing average of 2.4 assists, 20.3 points and 4.4 rebounds per match. With such a phenomenal performance he joined the gang of basketball gems such as LeBron James and Carmelo Anthony for being the only teenage basketball prodigies in the history of NBA to score an average of at least 20 points per game in an entire season.
The Shift To Oklahoma City Thunder (2008-16)
This wasn’t a literal shift of Durant’s career as his former club Seattle SuperSonics moved to Oklahoma City and turned into Thunders. The Slim Reaper set a record here as well in 2009 NBA All-Star Weekend by establishing a Rookie challenge with whopping 46 points.
Moreover, the 2009-10 season proved to be lucrative for K Durant as hewas cherry-picked to his first-ever NBA All-Star Game. He earned the recognition of being the youngest NBA shooting wizard and paved the way to his first All-NBA squad. As a result, the Slim Reaper extended his contract with the Thunders and the period of 2010-13 was excellent for him.
While serving for the Thunder Durant reached the peak of his career but also witnessed some of his career’s worst injuries such as the Jones fracture before the 2014-15 season. This was why his fans couldn’t experience Durant’s best game in the entire tournament. In the consecutive season (2015-16) he performed great for his squad again and scored an average of 8.2 rebounds, 1.2 blocks, 28.2 points and 5 assists per game commendable, right?
The Shocking Entry To The Golden State Warriors (2016-19)
The year 2016 can be termed as one of the shocking spans for Durant’s lovers as he decided to make a move to the Warriors. Many NBA analysts criticized his move when Durant signed a contract with the Warriors at $54.3 million.
The Slim Reaper’s transition to the Golden State proved to be a golden era for the squad as they grabbed back-to-back two NBA titles. Kevin Durant showcased phenomenal basketball skills when playing for the Warriors in 2017-18 season and the cherry on the cake was that he become the league’s second-youngest player to achieve the 20,000-point landmark.
In 2018-19 season Durant had to struggle with an injury on his lower right calf and his squad also lost the title, unfortunately. Irrespective of the results, Durant’s voyage with the Warriors has been an amazing span where both the parties enjoyed the ride to the core.
The Contemporary Professional Partner Brooklyn Nets: 2019-Present The legendary basketball scorer joined the American club Brooklyn Nets officially on July 7, 2019, which is again exciting news for his fans. At the same time, the CEO of his former club the Warriors announced that his jersey No. 35 will no longer be issued by them.
How About Walking Through Durant’s Overall Career Stats?
If we look at the overall career stats of The Slim Reaper he has an average of 3.9 assists, 7.1 rebounds, 27.1 points per game which is great! In terms of NBA, he has played in total 849 matches with .493 field goal percentage and 7.1 rebounds as well as 1.1 steals per game. Besides, the playoffs stats of Kevin Durant is great as he appeared in 139 playoffs and managed to grab 1 steals and 1.2 blocks per game on average.
What All Accomplishments K Durant Has Received So Far In His Professional Career?
Although, people have criticized him for his lean physique, defense and style of passing, in spite of the criticism Durant has grabbed many honors and awards in his career. Let’s take a look at them:
I. Won the National college player of the year in 2007
II. The National Association of Basketball Coaches Player of the Year award in 2007 and Kevin is the only freshman to ever achieve this honor
III. Rewarded with the All-NBA honors eight times in his career till date (2009–2014, 2016–2018)
IV. Grabbed the award for NBA Most Valuable Player in 2014
V. Honored with the Best Male Athlete ESPY Award in 2014
VI. In 2017 and 2018 Kevin was awarded as the NBA Champion
VII. K Durant is the youngest basketball gem in NBA history to join the 50–40–90 squad. VIII. Recognized as the 2nd youngest player in the history of the NBA to reach 10,000 career points after LeBron James.
How Durant Personal Life Has Been Off Court?
The Slim Reaper is very close to his mother in real life and was a big fan of playing video games when he was a part of the Thunder. Also, K Durant has religious tattoos on his wrist, stomach, and back.
He owns a restaurant named KD’s Southern Cuisine and multiple properties in Oklahoma City. The popularity graph of Durant is growing every year as his jersey is one of the top-selling assets in NBA rankings.
As far as Durant’s love life is concerned, he got officially engaged with Monica Wright who is a WNBA player but never got married. Also, he dated Cassandra Andersona who is a 28-year-old estate agent but this relationship also failed miserably.
As a philanthropic, he donated $1 million to the American Red Cross for the victims of Moore Tornado. After that, Nike also contributed to those affected by this calamity. In 2017, after a speaking gig at YouTube, Durant started a YouTube channel. It has 590,000 subscribers and 18 million views. Staggering, right?
Why Not Conclude The Slim Reaper’s Chapter With A Couple Of Unknown Facts About His Life?
Many of his fans might know that K Durant wears a jersey with number 35 as a tribute to one of his AAU coaches Charles Craig who passed away very early. The legendary NBA player Michael Beasley is Durant’s best buddy since their childhood days as they both grew up in the same setting.
Everyone has an idea that when Durant made an entry to the NBA he signed a contract with Nike at $60 million. What’s shocking that he turned a much bigger offer from Adidas down just because he is a die-hard Nike fan since his childhood.
To utter surprise K Durant has never appreciated any of the nicknames given to him by his lovers, such as “Durantula” or even the “Slim Reaper”. Although he appreciates when his fans simply call him “KD”.
There is no doubt that Kevin Durant has established himself as one of the most valuable NBA players that too at such a young age. From having a tough childhood to professional criticism the basketball wizard has seen it all. Nothing has impacted his spirit and passion for the game and as a result, his performances have been phenomenal all the time. Durant’s lovers are extremely excited to witness his another amazing inning with Brooklyn Nets going forward where some more magical steals, blocks, and shots will be added to his scorecard. Fingers crossed!
