Durant back at alma mater to visit facility named for him
With donation, Warriors’ Durant rewards Texas for helping him succeed
AUSTIN, Texas — A little after noon Friday, Warriors forward Kevin Durant handed his iPhone to his business partner and close friend, Rich Kleiman.
“Can you take a picture of me by myself, so I can show my friends?” Durant said as he leaned against a wall with big, gold letters: “KEVIN DURANT TEXAS BASKETBALL CENTER.”
It was a lasting reminder of the bond that ties Durant, 29, to the school for which he played one memorable season more than a decade ago. In the one-and-done era, when prized NBA prospects often view a year of college as a perfunctory requirement, Durant sees his time at the University of Texas as a foundational part of his identity.
Before he became one of the best scorers in league history, Durant was a gangly 18-year-old from Prince George’s County, Md., who had played for three high schools in four seasons. His brief stint with the Longhorns was hyper-efficient: In seven months, Durant built lifelong friendships, emerged on the national stage and, perhaps most importantly, found a community he considers a second home.
It is why he recently donated $3 million to Texas’ athletic department, the largest gift by a former student-athlete in school history and among the largest gifts ever by a professional athlete to his or her alma mater. Early Friday morning, before heading to Los Angeles for Saturday afternoon’s game against the Clippers, Durant flew to Austin to see the fruits of his generosity: the newly renovated locker rooms, the resurfaced practice courts, the graphics of Longhorns greats in the men’s basketball facility.
What he wasn’t expecting to find was the room Texas had constructed, complete with enormous photos of Durant, a locker stocked with his signature shoes and a state-of-the-art desk, next to head coach Shaka Smart’s office. Because Durant stops by campus whenever his schedule permits, the Longhorns wanted to make sure he had his own place to hang.
“What a legacy you’re living,” athletic director Chris Del Conte said at a ceremony to honor Durant’s donation and the renaming of the men’s basketball facility. “This gift is going to inspire the next generation that wants to be like you. … Greatness starts here, and you helped start it.” In the winter of 2004, while at a Delaware tournament called the “War on the Shore” to scout another player, then-Longhorns assistant coach Russell Springmann was captivated by the rail-thin 15-year-old draining mid-range jumpers off the dribble. The next day, Springmann called Durant’s coach and the high school sophomore received his first major scholarship offer.
It wasn’t long before all the powerhouse programs — Duke, Connecticut, North Carolina, Kentucky — joined in pursuit. Durant appreciat
ed Springmann’s genuine approach; the way he seemed more interested in Durant as a person than as a basketball player. In May 2005, at the end of his junior season, he went on his official visit to Texas.
Durant was talented enough to turn professional out of high school, but NBA commissioner David Stern had just enacted a rule disallowing high schoolers from entering the league before their 19th birthday. The Longhorns, who returned only four rotation players from an Elite Eight team, provided a chance for Durant to get immediate playing time for an established program far from the distractions of home.
During his first summer in Austin, Durant slogged through a rigorous workout regimen with strength coach Todd Wright and added 21 pounds. In late August, on the first day the entire team was on campus, players were content to go relax when they realized the basketball facility was being used for a camp. Durant called local rec centers until he found an open gym.
In his first college game, he scored 20 points against Alcorn State. There was the doubleovertime win over Texas A&M in which he went head-to-head with Acie Law, the four 37-point games, the two losses to Kansas in which he scored a combined 69 points. Along the way, he became the poster boy of college basketball.
Durant tried to get out of a commitment to participate in Big 12 Media Day when he learned that other members of the team wouldn’t attend. When Dime magazine asked to set up a photo shoot for a cover story on him, Durant made one condition: teammates A.J. Abrams, D.J. Augustin, Damion James and Justin Mason needed to join him.
“Everyone says he’s a superstar,” Mason said. “To be honest, it’s hard for me to see because he’s always wanted to be normal.”
In April 2007, after guiding a young Texas team to a 25-10 record and the second round of the NCAA tournament, Durant was in Los Angeles to receive the John R. Wooden Award as college basketball’s most outstanding player when he stopped by Rick Barnes’ hotel room to tell his head coach he planned to declare for the NBA draft. Barely able to speak, he broke down in tears.
“I was just going to miss being around the guys every day,” Durant said. “I was going to miss that simple type of life. I was going to miss walking to the dorms and catching the bus to class. Eating on the meal card with my teammates and going everywhere with them.”
Durant spent the first four summers of his NBA career, while playing for Seattle and Oklahoma City, training in Austin. After his second season ended in 2009, he pulled up to Mason’s off-campus apartment in a custom Toyota Sienna minivan. They spent the next few months sharing a twobedroom home, working out daily with the Longhorns and making Whataburger runs. Earlier that year, at age 20, Durant had watched his No. 35 jersey raised to the rafters at Frank Erwin Center.
“He really has an affinity for this town, the culture, the people,” Kleiman said. “Every time we come here, he gets excited. You should see him scrimmage with the guys. He’s like a kid again.”
Durant has stayed close to Texas’ athletic department since his final game 11 years ago. During the summer, he hosts a youth camp on campus. Durant has donated gear to the basketball and football teams. In April 2015, soon after news surfaced that Smart would be the Longhorns’ next coach, Durant sent him a text message: “Welcome to the family.”
Wearing a gray Texas sweat suit and black Longhorns hat Friday, Durant toured the refurbished basketball facility he helped make possible and gazed up at his retired number at Frank Erwin Center before addressing a room full of athletic department officials, donors and former teammates. His message was clear: Every time a player steps into the Kevin Durant Texas Basketball Center, he should remember that anything is possible.
Sitting in the back, surrounded by his Longhorns teammates, was freshman center Mohamed Bamba. Like Durant in 2006-07, Bamba figures to log one season before going in the top 10 of the draft.
About 20 minutes after watching Durant’s speech, he sat next to his idol in a waiting area featuring a wall lined with Durant’s signature shoes.
“The platform is there,” Bamba said, glancing at Durant. “Now it’s like, ‘Damn, I’ve got to get one up on him.’ ”
“I’m looking forward to that,” Durant said with a smile.