Durant, grateful for past, has close eye on the future
MILWAUKEE » The text message and phone calls flooded Kevin Durant’s inbox on Thursday morning as frequently as he scores.
The Warriors’ forward said he felt forever grateful and humbled he received such support a day after becom- ing the second youngest NBA player and 44th NBA player overall to eclipse 20,000 career points. Quickly enough, Durant vowed to tackle his itinerary with a specific phi- losophy. Said Durant: “It’s a new day and start over.”
Therefore, the Warriors (33- 9) enter Friday’s game against the Milwaukee Bucks (22-18) with Durant spending less time consumed with his past accomplishments. Instead, Durant has leaned on his past foundation to ensure a sturdy future on two fronts.
One, Durant wants to
climb the NBA’s all-time scoring list with the same efficiency as he has shown entering his 11th NBA season. Durant (20,015 points) remains 28 points away from surpass former Warriors forward Antawn Jamison for 43rd place on the league’s all-time scoring list. And Durant has further ascended on that list by shooting at least 50 percent in six of his 11 seasons.
“I don’t want to be a guy that got shots up. That’s not how I wanted to play,” Durant said. “I just tried to focus in on taking my best shot every time down. It’s a challenge. It’s like a game trying to figure out where to shoot the best shots.”
Second, Durant has vowed to show equal priority in honoring the NBA greats before him and praising the league’s contemporaries after him. Durant has studied past NBA luminaries, such as Magic Johnson, Julius Erving and Kobe Bryant. Durant also has often praised the league’s young players, including Milwaukee’s fifth-year forward Giannis Antetokounmpo, Philadelphia’s third-year center Joel Embiid and the Los Angeles Lakers’ second-year forward Brandon Ingram.
“I just respect how hard it is. I respect every guy that wakes up every morning and starts putting work into their craft,” Durant said. “It’s a different level of love and admiration for NBA players and what they’ve been through. I try to do my best to give back to the young generation and pull from the older generation.”
As a result, Durant offered a feel-good moment in an otherwise ugly Warriors’ loss to the Clippers. Durant performed a crossover 22-foot and jumper converted in the on sec- a ond quarter to reach the 20,000-point plateau. Warriors coach Steve Kerr considered the play a “fitting metaphor for the type of player he is.” “It was fitting other than the result. I was hoping that we would win the game and we could give him the game ball in the locker room,” Kerr said. “But you don’t give a guy the game ball in the locker room at home when you’ve lost by 20. That moment went out the window.” Durant could offer a fitting moment against Mil- waukee, though.
Then, Durant will match up with Antetokounmpo, whom Kerr called “one of the best players in the league and one of the exciting players in the league.” Durant considered Ante- tokounmpo to be the Bucks’ “head of the snake.”
Durant maintained no one could have envisioned Antetokounmpo morphing froman undeveloped player in Greece into the NBA’s second-leading scorer (28.7 points per game). Yet, he hardly sounded taken aback that Antetokounmpo initially ranked first ahead of LeBron James as the NBA’s leading vote-getter among Eastern Conference All-Stars before dropping to second this week.
“It wasn’t a surprise,” Durant said. “He always had his country. But now he has the [ United] States behind him as well. A lot of people in the States know him. And he’s new and fresh.”
Durant said Antetokounmpo has “never” sought him out for feedback or advice about his game. Yet, Durant said he “has always been a fan,” before explaining the importance in both seeking out mentors and offering support to those who ask.
“NBA players are only guys we can relate to,” Durant said. “We don’t really talk asmuch because of the competition thing, which I think is kind of wild. But you only can relate to these guys. It’s important we build the next generation up and we respect the generation before us. It’s the reason we’re doing what we’re doing.”
What Durant has been doing has entailed something so simple and yet so complex. He has remained consistent with his scoring without sacrificing his efficiency.
“Sometimes you have bad games. But striving to have the best shot I can ismy key focus,” Durant said. “Knowing the game and figuring out where we need to score from, seeing the rhythms of the game is something I found out as I got older.”