Team USA Kevin Durant has always been different, even in the beginning against LeBron with Kobe.
This was no ordinary game. It was the 2007 Team USA Intrasquad scrimmage, filled with the best players in the NBA: Kobe, LeBron, Dwight Howard, Carmelo, Jason Kidd.
And the reason I called Durant a baby is because this is before maybe the greatest olympic game ever, before he snaked and became a champion, before he was MVP, before he was a scoring champ. This was before he had even played a single NBA game.
**Durant was just happy to be there**.
Kobe said Jason Kidd elbowed him in the stomach like it was a game from the 80s.
There was more on the line for Kobe and LeBron, but that’s a story for another time. Just know that these scrimmages, the entire training camp was physical and competitive.
The game even started like this, yeah the players are fighting for it.
Sending doubles at Kobe, fouling at the paint, fast breaks, double clutching into a make, pick and rolls, chase down block.
Durant was just 18 years old, the youngest member of Team USA, he had no place.
Durant said he lied about his height to stop coaches from forcing him to play center. And he did lie, later on in his career, but not earlier. What a generational freak, man didn’t care about the hair routine, but actually grew his height…
But even so, 6’ 9” Kevin Durant was a unicorn. He won national player of the year during his freshman year averaging 25.8 points, 11 rebounds, the first freshman to ever win that award.
And in the NBA, he would become the youngest scoring champion ever. In fact, by the time he was 25, he had 4 scoring titles.
But even the greats take some time to get into their stride. A couple of games, going through an NBA training camp, getting up to game speed. For some, it can even take seasons.
So even as good as KD was coming into the league and as good as he would become, no one would blame him if he was a little out of place especially with this roster, **because this roster was special.**
Do y’all remember Deron Williams, man he was so tough.
And the list goes on. The best players in the world either at a superstar level or at their role.
Durant wasn’t in the plans for the roster, in fact Coach K wanted to evaluate Greg Oden but he wasn’t available.
So again, Durant, coming off the bench, was playing with his idols, and even if he couldn’t do anything, it would be a great experience…
Durant scored 22 points in the game 9 of 14 from the field.
Durant was playing so well that in a close game, he had earned being on the closing lineup, and he was hitting important shots **
In a game where Kobe and LeBron were going at it fro reasons bigger than just Team USA, in a game where the top scorers in the league were going off, Durant carved his place.
And even with this performance, KD didn’t make the cut. Too much on the line to trust a then 19 year old. Times were different. Now Kevin Durant is the difference between struggling in the Olympics and winning. We’ll forget about 2021, that didn’t happen