Already the NBA’s top scorer, Kevin Durant is no slouch in the national team. Thanks to helping the US team win the title at Paris 2024, Durant has won the 4th Olympic gold medal of his career.
This achievement separates KD from the rest of the US team’s NBA stars, players who have been All-Stars, All-NBA… many times but have never won 4 Olympic gold medals.
Speaking to journalist Marc J. Spears, Kevin Durant’s teammate on the US team – Bam Adebayo – called the Phoenix Suns star “the greatest Olympic basketball player”.
“With what he has achieved, Kevin Durant has carved a name for himself at the top ,” Adebayo said. “It would not be wrong to call Kevin the greatest Olympic basketball player ever.”
LeBron James also agrees with this sharing after spending most of his time facing Durant in the NBA, now being teammates and conquering the Olympics with KD in the US team jersey.
“Kevin Durant is one of the greatest players of all time. With his size and his scoring ability, he is clearly one of the greatest to ever touch a basketball,” the US captain said of his teammate.
“I know there are people who like Kevin and people who hate him. But if you look at it purely from a professional perspective, it’s hard not to put KD in one of the highest positions.”
Kevin Durant is the first NBA player in history to win four Olympic gold medals. He leads the U.S. team in points, field goals, free throws, and three-pointers.
Thanks to the 2024 Olympics, Durant became one of the rare players to reach the 500-point mark in the Olympic arena. He also surpassed the female legend Lisa Leslie to become the American player with the most points at the Olympics (currently at 518 points).
In the final match, KD had 15 points, 4 rebounds and 4 assists, contributing significantly to the gold medal for the US team.
Including Paris 2024, Kevin Durant has been invited to 5 different Olympics and has only declined once in 2008. In the remaining Olympics, Durant and the US team won gold medals including London 2012, Rio 2016, Tokyo 2020 and Paris 2024.
The most notable was Tokyo 2020 (held in 2021), where most of the top NBA stars refused to attend. Durant alone accepted to play for the national team, then led the US team to the gold medal and pocketed the MVP title.
It is still unclear whether Kevin Durant will play in the next Olympics on home soil (Los Angeles 2028). At that time, KD will be 39 years old and preparing to enter his 21st NBA season.
Asked about his ability to play, Durant replied: “Nobody knows, we’ll wait and see.”
