BOUNCE SPECIAL 2010

30
YOU HAVE TO BE
HUMBLE AND WØRK
HARÐ FOR EVËRYTHÎNG
THAT YOU GET.
Two years later, Oklahoma City is a 50-win team. Not only do they have
the best scorer in the League, but also a future star in point guard Russell
Westbrook. Durant has them believing, fast becoming one of the most
revered players in the League.
“You can’t just wake up (like that),” Augustin said. “You can say you want
to work hard but to actually do it, it has to be in you. It’s in him. He’s built
like that and his parents raised him great to be a humble kid.
“He’s always saying, ‘You have to be humble and work hard for everything
that you get.’ He just goes every day to the gym and plays like that and
works like that. Like I said, that aspect to go along with his ability at his
size and with his skill level, he can be unstoppable.”
Everyone always considered Durant a pleasant guy. During a Dime photo
shoot in 2007, Durant refused to pose on the cover unless his Texas team-
mates were there with him. Ask the dude a question about how he could
possibly get better and you get satirical remarks on how he couldn’t
improve. If he hears someone elevate him to the Kobe, LeBron level, he’s
scolding them. That gravity-affected demeanor has always masked the in-
ner drive to dominate that has seeped into and around his body. Without
an extraordinary belief in himself, Durant could never have dropped 25.8
points a game at Texas. He wouldn’t be the youngest scoring champion
the NBA has ever seen. He couldn’t be Now. He would just be Next.
Each summer, Durant returns home to the Washington D.C. area, looking
to dig up those roots that made him who he is. That journey inevitably
leads him back to the blacktop behind the gates, the Goodman Sum-
mer League. This is the same league Gilbert Arenas used to frequent to
test himself. Maybe the best summer league in the country, Durant has
been lacing the nets at Barry Farms since he was a 185-pound teenager
at Montrose Christian Academy. He connected with the scene before he
was a college superstar or high school All-American.
To Durant, he’s only doing what he’s always done: ⇒ nd where the talent
is so he can get better.
“You never wanted to be the guy that’d bring a basketball, and everyone
would use it while you just sat on the sideline,” Durant said about the
blacktop growing up. “I didn’t want to be one of those guys, and I always
worked on my game and when I got out there, I started to get mean and
that’s how I developed into the player that I am today.”
At Barry Farms, Durant is still the NBA All-Star with the crowd, bringing
an aura of excitement every time he comes walking through the gates.
But to the local players, he’s just another dude, albeit a 6-10 one. Already
this summer, Durant was on the receiving end of a 37-point performance
by playground star Omar Weaver.
“(There are) a lot of dudes like that in D.C. that could’ve been great, but
one or two things may have held them back,” Durant said. “I think play-
ing outside made me into the type of player that I am today. You never
wanted to fall on the ground, and you never wanted to leave the court
on a loss.”
Miles Rawls, the emcee at the Goodman League, never wavers in his praise
of the homegrown talent.