Durant is changing the culture

Here is a Sports Illustrated article on OKC's Kevin Durant:

Kevin Durant bows his head, raises his hand, and a franchise circles him like a maypole: teammates, of course, but also coaches and trainers, the general manager and assistant general manager, the scouting coordinator and communications director, folks from the video room and the equipment room, guys from the Development League affiliate in Tulsa and undrafted free agents who won't even make it that far. They try to reach the 6'9" Durant's outstretched hand, but no one can, so they settle for the wrist or the elbow or the space around him. They are too tired to lift their arms for long. "One, two, three, family," Durant says, in a haggard breath. "Family," the group pants back, in unison. Then they walk together across the field, over the ditch and up the Hill for the last time.

The Hill, as it is known to the Thunder, is a misnomer. Central Oklahoma does not really have hills, but it does have floods, which require drainage basins the size of parking lots. Run up the side of a basin and you might as well be scaling a sand dune. Twice a week every September, when NBA teams are technically still on vacation, most of the Thunder meet early in the morning at the practice facility, pile into pickup trucks and roll into a brick subdivision alongside a creek in nearby Edmond, Okla. The basin that borders the creek has been covered with grass, lined with sycamore trees and turned into a neighborhood park. The smell of fertilizer hangs in the air. Residents walk their dogs and wonder if summer will ever give way to fall. They look down at their park and shrug at the sight of professional athletes racing each other 60 feet up steep inclines while tossing medicine balls in the sky. "They're just part of our backyard now," says Angela Vaughn, who lives in a house across from the park.

Durant was not supposed to run the Hill this year. Only 21, the silky small forward led the U.S. to its first gold medal in 16 years at the world championships in Turkey, took one day off and was back at the Oklahoma City practice facility before his bosses even knew he was in the country. When he woke on the final Wednesday before training camp—the last time the Thunder would head for the Hill—he only felt like shooting. "Then I thought about it for a minute, and I couldn't do that to my guys," Durant says. "It wouldn't have been fair to them." The Hill does not afford preferential treatment. Front-office executives drop their Blackberries, swap dress clothes for practice gear and run suicides. Entry-level assistants join them. When they are all sufficiently gassed, they head back to the pickup trucks, Durant sneaking a spot in a bed before coaches wisely point him to a passenger seat.

Kevin Durant Video

Good video on the work ethic of OKC All Star Kevin Durant:

Durant Video

Kobe inspires Durant

Good story on espn.com about Kevin Durant being a major player on the USA team this summer. He offers up a good quote about the impression Kobe Bryant made on him during Team USA tryouts back in 2008:

Some of the roots of what made Durant such an efficient scoring machine can be traced back to the summer of 2008 when he was trying to make the roster for Beijing and the team was given a day off in Las Vegas.

We'll let Durant pick up the story from there.

"We had the day off, but they said we could get some shots up if we wanted, so I decided to head over with [Oklahoma City teammate and Team USA hopeful] Jeff Green.

"Kobe [Bryant] was the only guy on the bus, and that spoke volumes to me -- he's the best player in the game, yet he's always willing to come work on his game, so that kind of motivated me and Jeff," Durant said. "He went by himself, he got a lot of shots up, and by the time he was done you could see he had gotten better over that hour. Like I said, it was a big inspiration to me and Jeff."

That's Durant with a capital 'D'

CNNSI had a good article today on how Kevin Durant has stepped up his defense this year for the Oklahoma City Thunder, who are having their best season in years so far.

Says one Western Conference scout:

"Anyone with his length and wingspan can be an above-average defender by putting in the effort. This year I noticed he's more engaged. He's getting into his stance much sooner and not standing around, and getting back [in transition]. That's great because he's still very young -- he just turned 21. When you're that gifted offensively as a teenager, you just don't think about defense that much. I give a lot of credit to [Thunder coach] Scottie Brooks for getting him to buy in."

Says coach Scott Brooks:

"I spent time with Kevin watching the NBA playoff series and talking things over this summer," Brooks said. "There were so many great moments where great players were the ones defending -- Kobe, Carmelo, Paul Pierce -- and so many times the winning basketball play was on defense.

"Kevin always had the effort, but he didn't have the knowledge or the physicalness in his body to go through an entire NBA season playing defense. This summer he got his mind and his body right. He understood that if he was committed, we would be a much better team. We focused on defense from Day One, and when one of your better players is one of your better defenders, it makes coaching easier. I mean, he leads our team in rebounding, steals, blocks."

"Knowing when to stay with your man and when to help out is one of the hardest things for young players coming in," Brooks said, "because you think you're playing defense if you're guarding your man, but you also have to be aware of what might happen three passes away.

"We like to be as disruptive as possible, pushing people to the baseline, defending tight in the paint and closing out on shooters. We constantly talk about having a hand up in guys' faces -- you have to contest to make NBA players miss. And we like to force extra passes and get deflections. Kevin is a big part of all of that."