Not sure if you heard or not, but this was a fairly significant summer for Kevin Durant.
After making the biggest decision of his NBA career, Durant helped lead Team USA to Olympic Gold, and says the experience served a therapeutic purpose for him.
Kevin Durant to @TheVertical on why he needed Olympics after summer of change: "It was therapy for me." #Rio2016 https://t.co/BZNRnr3aqd
— Michael Lee (@MrMichaelLee) August 22, 2016
The Olympic stage was a welcome relief from KD’s legion of critics after he decided to join the Golden State Warriors.
Per Yahoo:
“It was therapy for me after making a big change in my life,” Durant said in the bowels of Carioca Arena 1 about an hour after scoring 30 points in Sunday’s 96-66 victory. “It made my life easier … I knew [a backlash] was coming. It was definitely different for me, but to come here in an environment where people accepted me and didn’t care about anything except being my buddy, that’s what I needed.”
Midway in the second period, Durant had demoralized Serbia with heat-check three-pointers and dunks, so the rest of the game felt like a tune up for his eventual games of H-O-R-S-E with Stephen Curry. “It’s called the ultimate green light,” coach Mike Krzyzewski joked. “You didn’t hear me saying don’t shoot.”
Durant has now posted the two highest point totals in the Olympics for an American player: 156 in London in 2012 and 155 in Rio. He is also only 25 points behind Carmelo Anthony as the top all-time American scorer despite appearing in half as many Olympics. As he walked from a joint news conference with Anthony and Krzyzewski after the game, Durant wasn’t certain if he’d return to catch Anthony at Tokyo in 2020. […] “I can’t say right now,” Durant said. “I’ll be 31, going on 32 …”
