Kevin Durant

Kevin Durant is an American professional basketball player for the Brooklyn Nets of the National Basketball Association (NBA).Who is currently taking the NBA by storm with his tenacity, athleticism and never back down attitude? He is the current starting small forward with the Nets. He has dazzled his way into the NBA with his amazing shooting for a big guy, Durant is listed at 6 '10 making him more of a big guy but his ability to score at will makes him one of the greatest scorers the game has ever seen. He was picked second in the 2007 draft by the Seattle Supersonics which became Oklahoma City Thunder in 2008.

Early Life

Kevin Durant was born in Washington D.C., to Wanda(durant) and Wayne Pratt on September 28th, 1988. His parents got divorced when he was young but his father re-entered his life when he was 13 to travel the country with him while he played basketball. After playing two years of high school basketball at National Christian Academy and one year at Oak Hill Academy, Durant transferred to Montrose Christian School for his senior year, growing 5 inches (13 cm) before the start of the season and beginning the year at 6 ft 7 in (2.01 m).

College

He decided to join the University of Texas, Austin for his college season although he played only for one season there. He was highly recruited by other better programs but decided to go with Texas to make his own path. For the 2006–07 college season, Durant—who had grown to 6 ft 9 averaged 25.8 points, 11.1 rebounds, and 1.3 assists per game for the Texas Longhorns. Texas finished the season with a 25–10 record overall and a 12–4 record in the conference. Awarded a 4 seed in the NCAA Tournament, Texas won its first-round match-up against New Mexico State but was upset in the second round by USC despite a 30-point and 9-rebound performance from Durant. For his outstanding play, Durant was recognized as the unanimous national player of the year, winning the John R. Wooden Award, and the Naismith College Player of the Year Award. This made Durant the first freshman to win any of the national players of the year awards.

NBA Journey

In his first regular-season game, the 19-year-old Durant registered 18 points, five rebounds and three steals against the Denver Nuggets. On November 16, he made the first game-winning shot of his career in a game against the Hawks. At the conclusion of the 2007–08 NBA season, he was named the NBA Rookie of the Year following averages of 20.3 points, 4.4 rebounds and 2.4 assists per game. He joined Carmelo Anthony and LeBron James as the only teenagers in league history to average at least 20 points per game over an entire season. He played for the Thunder from 2007 to 2016 where he was joined by another All-Star Russell Westbrook. In OKC, he was the scoring champion and he led them to their and first playoffs just three years after entering the league. With a scoring average of 28.1 points per game to finish the 2012–13 season, Durant failed to defend his scoring title; however, with a 51 percent shooting rate, a 41.6 percent three-point shooting rate, and a 90.5 free throw shooting rate, he became the youngest player in NBA history to join the 50–40–90 club. Finishing the year with a 60–22 record, Oklahoma City earned the first seed in the Western Conference.

He won the regular season MVP award during the 2013-2014 season, Durant averaged 35.9 points per game while scoring 30 or more points in 12 straight games, including a career-high 54 points against the Golden State Warriors. In April, he surpassed Michael Jordan's record for consecutive games scoring 25 points or more. The Thunder finished the year with 59 wins and Durant was voted the NBA Most Valuable Player behind averages of 32 points, 7.4 rebounds, and 5.5 assists per game. His MVP speech brought tears to everyone's eyes when he described how his Mom was the Real MVP.

Durant was tired of losing, he definitely deserved to win a championship, but this move raised a lot of eyebrows in the league. He decided to join Steph Curry and the Warriors to later win back-to-back finals and finals MVP. He received a lot of criticism for this move, he moved to the team that beat him in the finals. If he can't beat them he might as well join them and create history.

Creating history, the warriors would go on to win two championships in the two years he was there.

He tore his Achilles during game 5 of the 2019 NBA Finals while going for the Three-Peat, he was sidelined for the entire 2019-2020 season, he signed with the Brooklyn Nets during the free agency of 2019.

Awards and Achievements

Records

• Consensus National Player of the Year: 2007

• Consensus first team All-American: 2007

• Adolph Rupp Trophy (first freshman to win this award): 2007

• John R. Wooden Award (first freshman to win this award): 2007

• National Association of Basketball Coaches Player of the Year (only freshman to ever win this award).

• AP Player of the Year (first freshman to win this award): 2007

• Naismith Men's College Player of the Year (first freshman to win this award): 2007

• Youngest player in NBA history to win an NBA scoring title. (21 years, 197 days)

• Youngest player in NBA history to join the 50–40–90 club.

• 2nd youngest player in NBA History to record 10,000 career points. (24 years, 34 days)

• One of five players in NBA history to win the NBA scoring title in 4 or more seasons.

• One of eight players in NBA history to win the NBA scoring title in three consecutive seasons

MVP

Kevin Durant is a unique talent. He is as big as a power forward but shoots smooth jumpers like a shooting guard which makes him one of a kind who has that wingspan and reach. This makes him a starter on any team and makes an instant impact by winning the scoring title in his rookie year. He has a very famous quote, “ Hard Work Beats Talent When Talent Fails to Work Hard.” In the 2013-2014 season where he was voted MVP, he averaged 32 points, 7.4 rebounds, and 5.5 assists per game. At the beginning of the year, he was averaging 35.9 points per game while scoring 30 or more points in 12 straight games. In April of the same year, he surpassed the GOAT for consecutive games scoring 25 points or more at 41. He also gave one of the most important MVP Speeches of all time where he highlighted his moms struggles and how she made sure that all her kids had at least the bare necessities and how he dedicated his MVP by saying that his mother is the Real MVP.

Kevin Durant Net Worth

Kevin Durant is worth around $300 million. He does a lot of endorsements and he has a very diverse portfolio, has quite a few investments, also has quite a few properties, he even has a couple of restaurants. His shoe line is one of the best. On June 15, 2020, Durant became a minority owner of MLS side Philadelphia Union, acquiring a 5% stake with the possibility to add another 5% in the near future.

In August 2021, Durant announced a partnership between his multimedia company Boardroom, and the cannabis technology company Weedmaps through which an original content series would be developed and Weedmaps would become an official sponsor of Boardroom. Durant said of the partnership: "I think it's far past time to address the stigmas around cannabis that still exist in the sports world as well as globally. This partnership is going to help us continue to normalize those conversations, as well as create content, events, and a lot more through our Boardroom media network. Kevin earns $36 million from endorsement deals with companies like Gatorade, Nike, Degree, and more. In a given year, Durant earns around $65 million, of which $30 million comes from salary and $35 million comes from endorsements. He has also made a number of venture capital investments. He owns small stakes in a number of companies including Postmates and investment app Acorns. He recently paid $15.6 million for a house in California in 2021.

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Shoes

Kevin Durant signed a 4 year / $194,219,320 contract with the Brooklyn Nets, including $189,078,320 guaranteed, and an annual average salary of $48,554,830. In 2022-23, Durant will earn a base salary of $42,969,845, while carrying a cap hit of $44,124,845 and a dead cap value of $44,119,845. He currently has a deal with Nike for $300 million for 10 years. He has a very extensive shoe line with 14 collaborations; he is only the third player to have 14 collaborations. His top performing ones are Kd 13’s,14’s,15’s and 9’s.

Tattoos

Kevin has a total of 15 tattoos. He has a tattoo of American rap legend Tu Pac Shakur on his left leg and he also has a tattoo of singer rick James on his left thigh. He has another interesting tattoo: a Bible verse on the right side of his middle lower back and a tattoo of Jesus Christ on the left side. On his upper back, he has an angel holding a basketball and his jersey number 35 is also tattooed. On his upper back across his shoulder blades, he has his home state of Maryland tattooed. Above his right pec, Kevin has a tattoo of a dove bird inked followed by the name, Barbara tattooed right under it. It is in homage to his grandmother who took care of him when his parents got divorced. Above Kevin’s left pec, Kevin has the tattoo of a rose inked and just below the light-shaded rose there is another tattoo (Wanda) which is the name of his mother i.e Wanda Durant. Kevin has another biblical inscription inked on the lower right side of his stomach. There is a huge well-designed cross inked along its side. The inscription says, “The fear of the LORD teaches a man wisdom, and humility comes before honor Proverbs 15:33″. Under his cross tattoo on the lower right side of his stomach, there is writing from (2 Corinthians 5:7) which says, “Walk By Faith, Not By Sight”. There is a tattoo of the letter ‘W’ inked above Kevin’s navel. This is the representation of his hometown Washington and it's the logo of the Washington Nationals.

Family

Durant has a sister, Brianna, and two brothers, Tony and Yvonne. He is very close to his mother and he respects his father as well. He was engaged to WNBA player Monica Wright for a short while. He is very close to his mother and his siblings, and his dad reentering his life proved to be important for him. By the time he was 13 years of age, Kevin’s father, Wayne, came back into his life. Although not easy at first, he did not stop trying to patch the relationship between himself, his children, and his ex-wife, Kevin’s mother. It took ten years before Kevin and Wayne completely made amends. Wayne can then be seen going with Kevin in basketball tournaments. Their siblings of Kevin are Brianna, Yvonne, and the brother he spent most of his time growing up with, Tony. His older brother also played college basketball in Towson. In one of Kevin’s acceptance speeches, he said, “you taught me to feel confident in myself, belief in myself; that I could do it when I didn’t think I could do it.” Kevin and all of his siblings opted to use their grandfather’s family name “Durant” instead of their father’s family name, “Pratt.”

Kevin Durant is one of the most famous basketball players and most of his female fans go gaga over him and according to sources he has apparently had 6/7 girlfriends and he was engaged to WNBA player Monica Wright. His dating history is quite the repertoire. He was rumored to be dating television personality Rachel A. DeMita for a short while and then he saw Singer Teyana Taylor for three months and then dated another singer LeToya Luckett. He was rumored to be dating the warrior presenter Rosalyn "Ros" Gold-Onwude at the time he was at the Warriors.

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