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PRO BASKETBALL Photographs by GREG NELSON Kicking It Up a Notch Showing he’s more than a scoring machine, Kevin Durant has the young Thunder rolling toward the playoffs| BY CHRIS BALLARD n most mornings Kevin Durant, the best NBA player most people never get to see, drives his extralong con- version van 10 minutes from his house in the suburbs of Oklahoma City to the Thunder’s practice facility, which if not technically in the middle of nowhere is at least on its outskirts. He passes sagging power lines and idle oil derricks and vast fields of brittle yellow grass pocked with snow before turning onto a two-lane road and, just past the John Deere Ofactory, pulling into the parking lot of the practice center, a converted roller rink. Unfolding his 6' 9" frame from the van, Durant ambles past the odd rabbit lounging in the shrubbery and enters the gym for another day of work, all the while engulfed by the scent of . well, what is that exactly? “Dog food,” says Durant. “And it stinks, man; it really stinks.” As it turns out, there is a hulking Purina plant just down the road, churning out untold tons of pet chow weekly, but Durant takes the, um, ambience in stride, just as he does many other not- so-glamorous elements of playing in the smallest market in the NBA. These include the weather (cold), the nightlife (hello, Denny’s!) and the TV exposure (two national appearances this season, or 27 fewer than the Cavaliers), all of which are supposed to be of great importance to NBA players, who are commonly TALKING POINTS envisioned as a flock of 7-foot homing pigeons all hatched in Durant had scored 30 or the same sweaty South Beach nightclub. But Durant claims more in 12 of his last 14 games through Sunday, not to mind. He says that he “loves it here,” and once you forcing opponents to spend some time around him, it becomes clear that he is not alter defensive tactics. 46 | SPORTS ILLUSTRATED | JANUARY 25, 2010 SportS IlluStrated 01/25/2010 durant.l/o leFt PAGe 46/1 oF 2 SportS IlluStrated 01/25/2010 durant.l/o righT PAGe 47/1 oF 2 Version: 25 01/18/2010 01:43pM John Shostrom/Bechtel-newman Version: 25 01/18/2010 01:43pM John Shostrom/Bechtel-newman a.d./ext: Hercik/x5760 01/18/2010 01:14pM ltran1271 a.d./ext: Hercik/x5760 01/18/2010 01:14pM ltran1271 revise comments: art final revise comments: art final ±local read± ±Conference± ±art approval± ±HOLD:updates/Checks ±HOLD:art ±local read± ±Conference± ±art approval± ±HOLD:updates/Checks ±HOLD:art KEVIN DURANT only sincere but also talking as much about The Spurs’ scheme worked for about eet Sam Presti, the Thunder gen- INSIDE MAN He would run Durant the franchise as the city itself. three quarters. Durant shot mainly con- eral manager. At 32, his résumé In addition to through all manner of improving his D, This is not to say that the jokes don’t tested jumpers, many of which rimmed out M includes: four-year career as a Durant is taking drills, including defen- get old. Like last week, when Durant and in agonizing fashion, and at one point was scrappy guard at Emerson College (he once the ball to sive slides and grueling the hole more a few teammates were at a mall in Dallas 7 for 19 from the field. A year ago—even took six charges in one game), Rhodes scholar aggressively. hill sprints, all of which— and a man walked up to the group, which two months ago, he says—he would have nominee, seven years working his way up the from the perspective of a was outfitted in matching gray Thunder stopped shooting. “But I learned that’s not Spurs’ organization to assistant G.M. and 10-year-old—really sucked. But one in par- sweat suits, and said, “Oklahoma City—is the remedy,” Durant says. “I knew I had now three at the helm of the Oklahoma City ticular stood out in that regard: let’s call it that a semipro team?” and then started to be aggressive for us to win.” So he kept franchise, where he remains the youngest The Frozen Shot of Death. Brown would giggling. Last year, when the Thunder launching jumpers, focusing on releasing the G.M. in the league by a wide margin. From order the spindly Durant to lie on his back began a Nets-like 3–29, such a crack would ball before the defense closed, and eventu- an office next to the practice court—where with a pillow under his head and hold up a have at least made sense. This year, how- ally he began sinking them, finishing with he sits hunched over a laptop surrounded medicine ball as if about to shoot it, elbow ever, it merely betrayed ignorance, for the 35 points on 14-for-31 shooting in a tough by an iPod dock, a whiteboard with a color- cocked. “I was supposed to hold it there for Thunder are not only respectable but also overtime loss. To give you an idea of how coded list of every player in the league and an hour,” remembers Durant. “An hour!” The on the verge of being downright good. uncommonly common this output was for a stack of books that includes biographies first thing to go would be his right shoulder, Despite a nine-man of Harry Truman and The- which graduated from searing pain into a BETTER DAYS rotation that could Through its lonious Monk—Presti has throbbing if welcome numbness. Helping sup- be described as the first 40 games modeled the Thunder after port the ball with his left hand didn’t help, March Madness Trav- Oklahoma City his old employer. San Anto- “because then that one started to hurt too.” It already had eling All-Stars (aver- 22 victories— nio’s strategy over the last was the only one of Brown’s drills that Durant age age 23) Oklahoma just one short of decade-plus, greatly simpli- ever walked out on in their six fun-free years City finished the week the team’s total fied, was to assemble com- together. Even so, two hours after leaving, in 2008–09. with a 22–18 record, plementary pieces around Durant returned, wordlessly, and picked that just behind eighth-place Houston in the one lynchpin player (Tim ball back up. “I was never sure what that drill ultracompetitive Western Conference. Duncan) and a couple of was for,” says Durant, “but I know it’s those This has led to a natural curiosity about very good ones (most recent- types of drills that made me who I am today.” the team and especially the 21-year-old ly Manu Ginóbili and Tony Indeed, 10 years later Durant still eagerly Durant, who heretofore was known pri- Parker), then win with de- wants to please, a trait not commonly found marily for two things: being the national fense, discipline and smarts. in 29-point-a-game scorers. “You can tell college player of the year as a freshman (at Since taking over, Pres- him, ‘O.K., Kevin, we’re going to do 20 push- Texas) and scoring a ton of points for a bad ti has drafted a core of ups between shots,’ ” says Thunder coach NBA team (first the Sonics and then, after young talent—in addition Scott Brooks. “And he does it! He does it!” the team moved in 2008, the Thunder). The to Durant, there is point Assistant coach Ron Adams describes how latter leads to pejorative labels, whether guard Russell Westbrook, Durant is constantly asking for feedback, deserved or not: Gunner, Guy Who Gets even during games. And Idan Ravin, a trainer His, Volume Shooter. These days, however, who works with many NBA players, says he Durant is scoring a ton of points for a win- The Thunder’s rotation purposely set his first workout with Durant ning team, and that is regarded as a differ- at an awkward time and place just to see how ent thing entirely. Players who do that are (average age 23) could be Durant would respond. He got there 20 min- tagged All-Star and Franchise Player and utes before Ravin. “It’s important to make a have names like Kobe and Carmelo and described as the March good first impression,” says Durant. D-Wade and Dirk. This is not, as Brooks stresses, “just While Durant has not reached their level Madness Traveling All-Stars. putting on a show,” either. Durant takes just yet, there are nights when he comes the first bus to the arena on game days. pretty damn close. Take last week against Durant, consider that through Sunday he forward Jeff Green and shooting guard James help up a fallen teammate, a player’s hands “He goes and dunks or knocks down the He arrives an hour early for practices and San Antonio, one of the better defensive had more games of 30 points this season Harden—and surrounded it with high-char- grasping his shorts from exhaustion. jumper like, That’s what I’m supposed to stays two hours after. When he was in high teams in the league. The Spurs’ game plan, (22) than not (18), while averaging 29.1 (third acter, high-energy specialists such as forward The piece that holds it all together is do, I’ve done it before and I’m going to keep school, he spent so much time carrying in the words of one assistant, was to “double- in the league).