Mother knows best: For Wanda Durant, watching Kevin Durant will never grow old

AP Basketball Writer

PARIS (AP) — They gave Kevin Durant the game ball after he broke Lisa Leslie’s all-time U.S. Olympic basketball scoring record in the quarterfinals of the Paris Games. And, of course, he got plenty of congratulations afterward from his biggest fan.

That fan — Wanda Durant, his mother — wasn’t surprised with how her son reacted to her words.

“I was so excited about it,” Wanda Durant said Wednesday in Paris, where she was enjoying an off day with events and a little shopping. “And Kevin said to me, ‘Mom, you know that’s not what I do this for.’ I know it’s not what he does it for, but his family and friends were so excited for another accomplishment of his.

“But he’s so modest, even we as his family and friends and fans want to celebrate him. That’s who he is.”

Kevin Durant passed Leslie’s mark — she had 488 points in her four Olympic appearances, he’s up to 494 in his four trips to the games — in the U.S. win over Brazil in the quarterfinals on Tuesday night. Durant and the Americans will meet Serbia in the semifinals on Thursday, then play either France or Germany for a medal on Saturday.

If the Americans win their next two games, he’ll be the first men’s basketball player in Olympic history with four gold medals. He’s said the chance of being the first man with four basketball golds isn’t something that he often thinks about.

“I don’t think he was fibbing,” Wanda Durant said. “His family and friends see it as a monumental accomplishment or achievement. And so, we want to celebrate that with him. But that’s just not the way he looks at things. And that’s somewhat uncommon. But that’s just him. So, it’s all on us to celebrate him.”

Wanda Durant has obviously been by her son’s side throughout every step of his basketball life, but the world probably began fully grasping her impact on his career when he won the NBA MVP award in 2014 and delivered a line in his speech that was immediately iconic. He was detailing a time when the family got a new apartment, even without furniture, and were simply overjoyed to have a place of their own.

“We wasn’t supposed to be here,” Durant said to his mother during the speech, in a part that moved them both to tears. “You made us believe. Kept us off the street. Put clothes on our backs, food on the table. When you didn’t eat, you made sure we ate. You went to sleep hungry. You sacrificed for us. You the real MVP.”

Suffice to say, that apartment is long gone. But the lessons his mother instilled still drive Durant today.

She’s celebrated throughout the game. At the U.S. Olympic team’s exhibition game in Las Vegas last month, some of the biggest names in basketball — Arkansas coach John Calipari, Dwyane Wade and Carmelo Anthony among them — stopped by to greet her at her courtside seat. When she’s at NBA games, even opposing players pay their respects.

“That lady is a legend,” longtime NBA forward P.J. Tucker, who hosted Durant’s recruiting visit to Texas, said of Wanda Durant in 2022.

Yes, she still gets excited at games. Nervous, too. Watching nearly two decades now of her son winning Olympic titles and NBA titles and becoming one of the greatest scorers to ever play the game and a sure-fire Hall of Famer hasn’t lost its thrill. And she says that’s why her son is still one of the game’s absolutely elite players, even this deep into his career.

“It all comes from his makeup and his life experience,” Wanda Durant said. “He has experience with not giving up and not quitting. He has experience of accomplishing great things through the heartaches and obstacles of life. It still drives him now. Even with all the accomplishments, he knows there’s still more that he can do.”

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AP Summer Olympics: https://apnews.com/hub/2024-paris-olympic-games