Kevin Wayne Durant or simply Kevin Durant is a well celebrated American basketball professional, who plays for the ‘Oklahoma City Thunder’ of the National Basketball Association or NBA. He is a classy player who has attached several noteworthy titles to his name, such as the ‘NBA Most Valuable Player Award’ and the ‘NBA Rookie of the Year Award’. He also has an Olympic gold medal to his credit.

Fact1: Durant was born on Sept 29, 1988 to Wanda and Wayne Pratt in Maryland . He has three siblings named Brianna, Anthony, who is also a basketball player and Rayvonne. He loved basketball from his very childhood and was a great fan of ‘Vince Carter’, a reputed American Basketball player of the ‘Toronto Raptors’.

Fact2: Kevin’s dad abandoned them when he was just a baby and it was his grandmother, Barbara who helped their mother Wanda raise her kids. She was an amazing person and played an important role in shaping his character.

Fact 3: Durant was the tallest boy in his class and currently has a magnificent height of 6.9”. His mates used to make fun of him for this but his grandmother reinforced his confidence by stating that one day his height was going to be his greatest blessing.

Fact 4: He proved himself to be a seasoned basketball player at an early age playing for the Amateur Athletic Union in Maryland. During those days he was strongly influenced by his AAU coach Charles Craig who met with an untimely death at the age of 35. Since then Durant started wearing his jersey No. 35 as a tribute to his mentor.

Fact 5: At high school, he played for the National Christian Academy, the Oak Hill Academy and for the Montrose Christian School in the subsequent year. He was 6.7” then. His talent in basketball gained extensive national attention after his name was enlisted in the Parade Magazine’s ‘First Team’ and USA Today’s ‘First Team All-American’.

Fact 6: The two years of high school basketball was quite remarkable and he tied up with the University of Texas Longhorns before the start of the college season. It was the freshman year of his college and as obvious for a talented player, he averaged with 25.8 points and 11 rebounds for each game in a total of 35 games. His feat was classy in all those games and was named the ‘most valuable player of the tournament’. He also won the Oscar Robertson and the Adolph F. Rupp awards and became the first freshman ever to win both the awards together.

Fact 7: Hardly after a year of college basketball, he declared himself for the NBA draft, 2007. In the same year, he was declared the second overall by the Seattle SuperSonics. He was also named the ‘Rookie of the year’ and became the one of the three teenagers in the history of NBA to score an average of 20 points for each game within the single season.

Fact 8: Soon after the 2007-08 season, the SuperSonics moved from Seattle to the Oklahoma City and adorned themselves with new a name and different colors. Thus they became the ‘Oklahoma city Thunder’ combining blue, orange and yellow in their jersey. Durant is still a part of the franchise. He has also played at the international level after being selected to the 2010 FIBA World Championship and the team came out victorious under his leadership.

Fact 9: Despite the tight schedules of an acclaimed player, Durant finds time for philanthropist causes also. He donated $1million in 2013 for the Moore tornado victims and this act of generosity was duly emulated by the Thunder and Nike. Durant is highly regarded by his fans and others alike and this popular player was even referred to as the ‘nicest guy in NBA’ in the same year in a series of commercials by ‘Foot Locker’.