The Warriors’ Kevin Durant scores 31 points, wins AllStar Game MVP award.
Forward wrestles spotlight away from Curry with 31-point outing
CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Warriors forward Kevin Durant views his 2012 NBA All-Star Game MVP award as a key mile-marker in his career.
By dominating some of the world’s best, Durant — then 23 years old and in his fifth professional season — cemented his status as a generational player. Now, seven years removed from that pivotal night, Durant is expected to control games — even when facing the likes of Stephen Curry and Giannis Antetokounmpo.
The latest example of how far Durant has come arrived Sunday night, when he won his second All-Star Game MVP award after scoring a team-high 31 points to help Team LeBron come from behind for a 178-164 win over Team Giannis. This trophy, unlike the 2012 one, is just another honor in a career filled with them.
“Obviously, the first time is always sweet — sweeter, I guess,” Durant said. “I didn’t come into any of these games expecting to do anything. It just kind of happened. So, the first time was cool. In 2012, I started to feel like I started to hit that elite level. All that stuff in one year was pretty exciting to me.
“As a veteran now coming back, winning another MVP is cool to put into the trophy case.”
Over the past two-plus weeks, as the blogosphere buzzed with speculation about his pending free agency
this summer, Durant continued to dazzle. Sunday was no exception. On a team loaded with soon-to-be free agents, Durant was hyper-efficient, shooting 10-for-15 from the field — including 6-for-9 from 3-point range — to go with seven rebounds and two blocks.
After watching Durant’s Team LeBron rally from a 20-point, third-quarter deficit for a convincing victory over Team Giannis, many were left to wonder: How potent would the Lakers be next season if they could pair Durant with LeBron James? What if Durant and Team LeBron teammate Kawhi Leonard sign with the Clippers? How about if Durant and another Team LeBron teammate, Kyrie Irving, decide to resuscitate the Knicks?
Only 11 days removed from a contentious postgame news conference in which Durant railed against media’s coverage of his pending free agency, no reporters dared Sunday to question him directly about his future. Durant was asked, however, which Team LeBron teammate he had “instant chemistry with.”
“Every one of them,” Durant said. “I think every one of these guys, you can relate to them on a different level. A lot of these guys come from the same background and same circumstances, so you relate to them on a different level. All our skills match with each other.”
Twenty months ago, when the NBA announced that Charlotte would host the 2019 NBA All-Star Game, Curry was widely anointed the weekend’s unofficial host. He has not played for the Charlotte Hornets, but his family is basketball royalty in the Queen City.
In the days before the game, as he shuttled between event after event in his hometown, Curry’s goal was simple: celebrate the place that helped him become the player and person he is today. Even as his misses mounted Sunday, Curry exuded joy.
Though he finished with just 17 points on 6-for-23 shooting (4-for-17 on 3-point tries), he flirted with a tripledouble, posting nine rebounds and seven assists. Along the way, Curry provided plenty of highlights.
Midway through the second quarter, Curry threw a bounce pass so hard that it soared over Durant and into the giant palm of Giannis Antetokounmpo, who hammered it home. In the third, Curry again found Antetokounmpo for an alley-oop dunk.
Early in the fourth quarter, after draining a deep 3 while drawing contact from Warriors teammate Klay Thompson of Team LeBron and falling to the court, Curry hopped to his feet and chuckled as he glanced toward his family sitting courtside. Little more than a minute later, Curry caught the ball under the basket and tossed it behind his head to Khris Middleton for a corner 3.
In the waning seconds, Curry took a hard dribble, caught the ball and threw down a 360-degree dunk. It was a fitting cap to a weekend he won’t soon forget.
“Pretty much everything I imagined it to be,” said Curry, who arranged tickets for close to 100 family members and friends Sunday. “Obviously, ending up tonight playing in the All-Star Game here is very surreal, and one I’ll remember for a very long time.”
One of the few things that would’ve made it even more memorable: Curry’s first career
“Winning another MVP is cool to put into the trophy case.” Kevin Durant, Warriors forward, who also was the All-Star Game’s MVP in 2012
All-Star Game MVP award. Instead, Durant joined Kobe Bryant, James, Magic Johnson, Michael Jordan and Shaquille O’Neal as the only players to have won at least one NBA MVP award, at least two Finals MVPs and at least two All-Star Game MVPs.
It all started with that 2012 All-Star Game MVP.
“It’s all sweet to me,” said Durant, who is the first Warriors player to be named an