Kevin Durant needs a fifth Olympics with Team USA: ‘It’s simply enjoyable, man’

In lower than two years, the United States males’s basketball group shall be in Los Angeles, trying to defend its Olympic title. Kevin Durant, who shall be a few months shy of turning 40 years outdated when the Summer Olympics begin, nonetheless needs to be there.

Durant not too long ago spoke at a USA Basketball charity occasion in Southern California and doubled down on his want to play for Team USA in 2028. It would mark Durant’s fifth Olympics, and each level he scores would lengthen his lead as Team USA’s all-time Olympic scoring chief, males’s or girls’s.

Durant, who averaged 26 factors a recreation final season for the Houston Rockets, continues to be close to the highest of his recreation. His legacy as one of many recreation’s all-time greats is safe. But with the Olympics returning to the United States, he has a easy cause for eager to do it once more.

“It’s just fun, man,” Durant informed The Athletic late final season. “It’s an incredible time. You get to travel the world. I don’t know if we’re gonna get to travel the world with it being in the States, but the last few years, we would go (to) Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Paris, London, Canary Islands, Madrid … being in places that changed not just my perspective about the game, just about life in general. I’ve been in places I’ve never even thought about being in if it wasn’t for the game. That experience is one of the best, man. I encourage everybody to play for their country.”

Before a recreation in opposition to Durant and the Rockets in March, his former Golden State Warriors coach and 2024 Team USA coach Steve Kerr known as Durant the best males’s FIBA participant in American historical past. After all, Durant has helped Team USA win 4 straight gold medals. A couple of weeks later, Kerr defined why Durant’s expertise interprets so properly to the worldwide recreation.

“No. 1, FIBA is six weeks,” Kerr informed The Athletic. “You don’t have much time to build continuity. You don’t have much time to install a system. Kevin is, like, the most lethal scorer, one of the most lethal scorers in the history of basketball. So, if you need to get a basket and you only have five days of practice and then these games — a game with different rules, different players — you’re going against guys you don’t know. Kevin Durant’s perfect for that. Throw the ball to Kevin.”

Former Team USA coach Gregg Popovich put it much more merely after teaching Durant within the Tokyo 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 stated. “So many great players have played. They probably didn’t play as long as me; that’s probably why I get that. I’ve been on four Olympic teams. We’ve won gold every time, so I’ve just been around. I show up.

“I think that’s what my career has been based upon, just showing up and letting the chips fall where they may. … I experienced some great coaching with Team USA, and that’s really what brings me back.”

Longtime Miami Heat coach Erik Spoelstra, who served as an assistant on Kerr’s workers in Paris, is now Team USA’s head coach and has lengthy drawn reward for the way he runs the Heat. What so many members of Team USA appear to thrive upon is the pleasure they soak up representing their nation on the world stage. That emotion nonetheless drives Durant to compete.

“The pride of your country that you represent in your small section of the country on the big stage,” stated Durant, who grew up within the Washington D.C. space. “Playing with the best of the best to ever play the game. And coached by the best of the best. It’s a no-brainer to go.”

Durant has been so moved by representing Team USA that he has inspired different gamers to reap the benefits of the Olympic expertise at any time when it presents itself.

“Bol Bol had the chance to play for South Sudan, and I was encouraging him to do so,” Durant stated. “I think he might have been injured, but I’m like, man, you need to go experience the Olympics. … Being able to play on that stage and see the pride that people have for where they come from, I think every player should experience that.”

Kerr witnessed that keenness firsthand. He has lengthy praised Durant for his preparation by means of the day-to-day grind of an NBA season. With Team USA, he noticed one thing else. He noticed how a lot Durant loves representing the purple, white and blue.

“He also loves FIBA,” Kerr stated. “He loves the experience of being on a team, with all these guys who he is normally competing against. I think he likes the travel. I think he likes eliminating the NBA bulls— that you have to go through for eight months, and it becomes the most pure sporting experience of a player’s life at that level. Kevin, at his core, he loves basketball as much as anybody I’ve ever been around.”

Last season, Durant spoke about that love and what it means to go alongside knowledge to youthful gamers who grew up idolizing him. He is aware of how a lot representing Team USA on the world stage has meant not just for him, however for all of the younger gamers who watch him everywhere in the globe.

“You just never know who’s watching you,” Durant stated. “It definitely resonates and makes you go harder. Just knowing that I can impact people in a positive way all around the world … I didn’t know that. From turning on your TV, and people coming up to me with KD tattoos and s— when I’m in China. People coming up — I’m in Italy walking in the background, and people walking behind me. There’s 30 people following me, chanting my name.”

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 Team in Barcelona. Like so many others, Durant believes that assortment of American stars ushered the sport into a brand new period.

“Obviously, the NBA was well known,” Durant stated. “But that was a moment where you have all the same players on one court, and you’re out there playing against the world. It’s like, ‘Damn, this is the best the NBA has to offer right here. Let me tune into this going forward. Let me see these guys play against each other now.’ If you were a fan already in Turkey or Germany: ‘This is interesting. What is this?’ Boom.

“And then, our league has grown. … From then to now, the game has reached so many people, man. I’m just grateful that I can walk around and people just show me respect and love for what I do on the basketball court and (for) inspiring some people. That keeps me going, for sure.”