50 Fun Facts About Kevin Durant

Which team drafted Durant second overall in 2007?

Seattle SuperSonics had him for a single season: the franchise moved to Oklahoma City after his rookie year and was renamed the Thunder.

Who was taken first overall ahead of Durant in the 2007 draft?

Greg Oden had knee surgery before he played a game, missed that entire season and managed only 105 NBA games in his career.

Durant played one college season for which school?

Texas got one season from him only because the NBA had just barred high-schoolers; asked later if he would have skipped college, he said "probably", because "I needed the money."

Why did Durant choose No. 35 as his jersey number?

His AAU coach was murdered at 35, and Durant took the number to honour Charles Craig, a childhood mentor; when he left Golden State, the Warriors promised never to issue it again.

Which former Thunder sixth man rejoined Durant in Brooklyn in 2021?

James Harden had been traded away from Oklahoma City months after their 2012 Finals run; the Brooklyn reunion lasted 13 months before he was dealt on to Philadelphia.

Which Maryland county, on the edge of Washington, D.C., did Durant grow up in?

Prince George's County and its youth basketball scene became the subject of Basketball County: In the Water, a Showtime documentary made by Durant's own company.

Which childhood friend and youth teammate of Durant was also drafted second overall, one year after him?

Michael Beasley trailed him by a year at every step: he too starred as a college freshman, left after one season and went second in the draft.

Which prep powerhouse, where Carmelo Anthony also played, did Durant attend for his junior year?

Oak Hill Academy teamed him with his old youth teammate Ty Lawson for one season; he then went home to Maryland and finished high school at Montrose Christian.

Durant was the first freshman ever to win which honour?

Naismith College Player of the Year was part of a sweep of every major national award, yet his team went out in the second round of the NCAA tournament.

Which NBA award did Durant win in 2008?

Rookie of the Year went to a 19-year-old who averaged 20.3 points a game for a team that won only 20 of its 82.

Which UCLA guard, drafted fourth overall in 2008, became Durant's All-Star partner in Oklahoma City?

Russell Westbrook stayed in Oklahoma City when Durant left in 2016 and won the MVP award the very next season.

Which star did Durant narrowly beat to the 2010 NBA scoring title?

LeBron James averaged 29.7 points to Durant's 30.1, but beat him to the MVP award, in which the 21-year-old finished second.

Which team beat the Thunder in the 2012 NBA Finals?

Miami Heat lost the opener in Oklahoma City and then won four straight, even though Durant outscored everyone in the series at 30.6 points a game.

The 90 in the 50-40-90 club Durant joined in 2013 measures which shots?

Free throws: he made 90.5 percent that season, with 51 percent from the field and 41.6 from three, yet it was the one year in five that he failed to win the scoring title.

Whom did Durant call "the real MVP" in his 2014 speech?

His mother, Wanda, raised two sons as a single parent, and he thanked her for keeping them fed, clothed and off the streets. The line later gave a TV film about her its title.

Which sportswear brand signed Durant to a seven-year, $60 million deal when he turned pro in 2007?

Nike has kept him ever since, and in 2023 turned the deal into a lifetime contract.

Which newspaper dubbed Durant "Mr. Unreliable" during the 2014 playoffs?

The Oklahoman ran the headline with his team trailing Memphis 3-2; he answered with 36 points in Game 6 and Oklahoma City went on to win the series.

What injury cost Durant most of the 2014-15 season?

Jones fracture in his foot kept the reigning MVP to 27 games, and Oklahoma City missed the playoffs for the only time in his last seven seasons there.

In which publication did Durant announce his 2016 decision to sign with the Warriors?

The Players' Tribune ran his letter, "My Next Chapter", on July 4; in it he wrote that "Oklahoma City truly raised me" while leaving for the team that had just knocked it out of the playoffs.

Whose 72-win record had the Warriors just broken when Durant joined?

Chicago Bulls of 1995-96 had won 72; the Warriors won 73, then lost the Finals in seven games and signed Durant weeks later.

Durant's 2017 Warriors went 16-1 in the playoffs, breaking a 15-1 record that which team had held since 2001?

Los Angeles Lakers lost only the opening game of the 2001 Finals; the Warriors won their first 15 games in 2017 and dropped only Game 4 of the Finals.

Which team did the Warriors beat in the 2017 and 2018 Finals, with Durant MVP both times?

Cleveland Cavaliers had beaten the Warriors for the 2016 title; with Durant added, Golden State lost only one of the nine Finals games the teams played in 2017 and 2018.

Which teammate was suspended for cursing Durant out over his free agency in 2018?

Draymond Green was suspended by his own team for the tirade, which began on the court against the Clippers and carried on into the locker room; Durant left the following summer.

Against which team did Durant rupture his Achilles in Game 5 of the 2019 Finals?

Toronto Raptors led the series 3-1 when he came back from a month out with a calf strain; he scored 11 points in the first quarter and was hurt two minutes into the second.

Which former Oklahoma City teammate was Durant driving at when his Achilles tore in the 2019 Finals?

Serge Ibaka was so shaken that he joined teammates in motioning to the home crowd, some of whom had cheered the injury, to be quiet.

Which former point guard became Durant's head coach in Brooklyn in 2020?

Steve Nash had never been a head coach before; he left the job seven games into the 2022-23 season, three months before Durant himself was traded away.

Which actor's leaked messages with Durant led to a $50,000 NBA fine in 2021?

Michael Rapaport posted screenshots of their private messages; Durant replied in the actor's Instagram comments, "my bad I apologize", and the league fined him three days later.

Durant's toe on the line turned a Game 7 winner into a tying two in 2021 against whom?

Milwaukee Bucks won in overtime and went on to take the title; Durant, who scored 48, said afterwards that his big foot had stepped on the line.

Which country did the USA beat in the 2024 Olympic final to give Durant a record fourth gold medal?

France were beaten in the final for the second Games running: Durant's team had also denied them the gold in Tokyo three years earlier.

Which team acquired Durant from Brooklyn in February 2023?

Phoenix Suns gave up Mikal Bridges, Cameron Johnson and four first-round picks for him, then missed the playoffs two years later and traded him on.

How did Durant sprain his ankle on the night of his planned home debut in March 2023?

Slipped in pregame warm-ups: he left the arena in a walking boot, and the home crowd had to wait three more weeks to see him play.

Which young player did Houston trade away for Durant in 2025?

Jalen Green, like Durant a former No. 2 overall pick, left with Dillon Brooks in a deal that swelled to seven teams before it was completed.

Durant's Rockets debut was a double-overtime loss at his old club Oklahoma City on the night it held what?

A championship ring ceremony came first; Oklahoma City then won 125-124, after the officials missed Durant signalling for a timeout Houston did not have in the first overtime.

In March 2026 Durant passed which player for fifth on the NBA's all-time scoring list?

Michael Jordan's total of 32,292 stood 25 points away at tip-off; Durant scored 27 that night and finished two points ahead of him.

Which All-Star point guard joined Brooklyn as a free agent in the same week as Durant in July 2019?

Kyrie Irving arrived as Brooklyn sent its incumbent point guard, D'Angelo Russell, to Golden State in the sign-and-trade that brought Durant.

Where did Durant win his first Olympic gold medal?

London: Spain trailed the USA by a single point going into the last quarter of the 2012 final before the Americans pulled away to take the gold.

Whose mark did Durant pass in 2024 to become the USA's all-time Olympic basketball scorer?

Lisa Leslie of the women's team had kept the overall American record even after Durant took the men's one from Carmelo Anthony in 2021.

Durant led the USA to which title in 2010, its first since 1994, and was named MVP?

FIBA World Championship gold came against the hosts, Turkey, three years after the national team had cut him from its roster for lack of experience.

Which of these NBA nicknames belongs to Durant?

The Slim Reaper took off online during a scoring tear in January 2014, but when a fan asked what he thought of it, Durant replied that he liked KD better.

Durant admitted understating his height to be listed as which position?

Small forward, he said, is a 6 ft 9 job: "Anything taller than that, and they'll start saying, 'Ah, he's a power forward,'" so he kept that listing though he stood 7 feet in shoes.

What is the name of the company Durant founded with Rich Kleiman in 2017?

Thirty Five Ventures went on to buy a Major League Pickleball team in 2022, joining Tom Brady and Drew Brees among the sport's celebrity owners.

Two Distant Strangers, a short film Durant's company backed, won which award?

An Academy Award, for best live-action short, went to its directors, Travon Free and Martin Desmond Roe; the film traps a Black man in a time loop that always ends with police killing him.

Which Apple TV+ drama inspired by Durant's life did he executive-produce?

Swagger moves his youth-basketball years to the present day: its teenage star, Jace, plays for a coach who works at a home-repair store, played by O'Shea Jackson Jr.

Which sport is played by the Philadelphia Union, the club Durant bought a five percent stake in during 2020?

Soccer: the Union play in MLS, and his business partner said the deal was meant to be more than a passive stake, with their firm working on the club's marketing.

Which amusement park property in his home county did a group including Durant buy in 2026?

Six Flags America had shut for good the previous November, and its 515-acre site sat empty amid speculation about its future until Durant's group bought it in April.

Which 2012 children's film featured Durant as an actor?

Thunderstruck has him play himself: a teenage fan takes his talent by accident through a signed basketball, and the NBA star suddenly cannot make a shot.

Which music mogul's agency did Durant sign with in 2013?

Jay-Z had founded Roc Nation Sports only two months earlier; Durant left his agent, Rob Pelinka, to become the new agency's most marketable client.

Which sports-business media brand, begun as an ESPN+ series in 2019, was launched by Durant's company?

Boardroom started as a six-episode ESPN+ show about the business of sport, featuring Durant and his partner Rich Kleiman, and outgrew it to become a media company of its own.

After the 2013 Moore tornado, Durant pledged $1 million to which charity?

The American Red Cross got his pledge within days of the tornado that tore through Moore and Oklahoma City, and his team matched it with $1 million of its own.

After tweeting about himself in the third person in 2017, Durant was accused of running which kind of account?

Burner accounts are anonymous profiles for answering critics unseen; he called his 2017 behaviour "childish", yet said in 2020: "I'm still going to do the burner thing."