Written by Chris O’Dell
Standing 6’9″ with a freakish 7’5″ wingspan, Kevin Durant wowed NBA scouts with his natural scoring ability in college. Scouts watched Durant as he dominated college basketball and took home eight National Player of the Year Awards as a true freshman at the University of Texas.
Experts tried to draw comparisons to players like Dirk Nowitzki and Tracy McGrady. Those comparisons allowed Durant to be selected as the second overall pick in the NBA draft. However, even Nowitzki and McGrady, two elite NBA players, may not have done Durant justice.
After winning the Rookie of the Year Award in 2007-08, there were still many questions surrounding Durant’s all-around game. He could obviously light up the scoreboard, but his shot selection, propensity for turnovers and unwillingness to get to the foul line left a lot of room for improvement.
In his second season in the NBA, Durant improved in nearly every statistical category. He raised his scoring average five points per contest to an impressive 25.3 points per game. He managed to grab just under seven rebounds and dish out nearly three assists per game for the Oklahoma City Thunder. Perhaps more impressive than his leap in scoring was the efficiency with which Durant scored.
The former Longhorn shot 48 percent from the field, 42 percent on threes and 86 percent from the free-throw line. Separately, each category might not look extremely impressive, but together they make one crazy stat line. In fact, not even Tracy McGrady, Allen Iverson or Kobe Bryant has ever accomplished such a feat in their illustrious careers.
Certainly Durant is no longer capable of surprising basketball fans by his natural ability to put the ball in the goal. If that didn’t end after last season, it certainly has now. The only question Durant spectators are asking now is just how good can No. 35 be?
Apart from his Big 12 domination, the first sign NBA fans got of Durant’s greatness was in the rookie-sophomore challenge last season when “Durantula” went for 46 points and appeared to be on a completely different level than any other player in the game.
This year, Durant has taken his game to a whole new level — a level that can only be matched by maybe two or three players in the game today. In fact, after Kobe Bryant and LeBron James, Durant might very well be the league’s third best player.
With hard work and a willingness to improve any weaknesses in his game, Durant is averaging 29.7 points, 2.9 assists and 7.5 rebounds per game; while doing it at an incredibly consistent pace. Just how consistent has Durant been?
The third-year forward has scored at least 25 points in his last 26 games while leading a young and inexperienced Thunder team to an 18-8 record during that span. The stretch of 26 games has Durant as one of only three players in the last 30 years to put up such a consistent stretch of games. The only other two players to rake in such numbers in that period of time were Allen Iverson and Michael Jordan.
The streaking Thunder team has won seven straight games and is in position to earn its first playoff berth since the franchise moved to Oklahoma City. The scariest thing for opposing teams to remember is that Durant is only 21-years-old.
In fact, the entire core of the Thunder is built around young and talented players. With the Lakers, Spurs, Mavericks and Suns having their franchise players on the backend of their careers, the Western Conference could very well be dominated by Durant and his Thunder in the years to come.
Fast-forward six years or so from now, with Kobe Bryant, Tim Duncan, Dirk Nowitzki and Steve Nash retired from the game of basketball, and Kevin Durant might be the cream of the crop, not only in the Western Conference, but in the entire NBA. With Durant’s combination of length, silky smooth ball handling, shooting touch and natural ability to score, the Thunder forward might be the league’s premier player in the future — even more so than LeBron James.
Much like the rivalry between Magic Johnson and Larry Bird in the 80s, the possible future rivalry between Durant and James might be just as entertaining to watch. Bird and Magic were the game’s best players of their decade, and Durant and James will most likely be the best two players of the next decade.
At just 21 years of age, the question again comes up: just how good can No. 35 be? No one knows for sure, but my guess is that he’s better than anyone else in the game six years from now.
