Kevin Durant…..A Superstar???
Kevin Durant, the third year player out of Texas is already a superstar. Durant has won the league scoring title scoring 30.1 points per game. What makes this feat so impressive? Durant is the youngest player in the NBA to ever win a scoring title at the ripe age of 21. Durant finished 0.4 points ahead of King James, but James did sit out the last 4 games of the season.
Oklahoma City's Kevin Durant scored 30 or more points 47 times this season. What is even more impressive than that stat is that Durant led his team to a 50 win season. That is more than double how many games the Thunder won last year. And more wins than the Thunder have won in the previous two seasons combined.
Durant has led his team to a playoff berth for the first time as the team has been officially known as the Oklahoma Thunder. Durant is a warrior and played in all 82 games this season. Durant finished the season on a tear, scoring 30 or more points in his last 7 games. Durant finished the season averaging 30.1 points per game, 7.6 rebounds per game, 2.8 assists per game, and about block and a steal per game.
As a reward for making the playoffs, the Thunder will have to play their first round matchup against the defending NBA Champion Los Angeles Lakers. The head coach of the Lakers called out Kevin Durant and said that Durant gets preferential treatment from the referees. What Coach Jackson meant by his comments is that Durant gets help from the referees and they send him to the foul line more often than he should get there. This bothered Kevin Durant. "Because it's taking away from what I do," Durant said, according to The Oklahoman. "That's a part of my game, getting to the free-throw line and being aggressive. If you say that I get superstar calls or I get babied by the refs, that's just taking away from how I play. That's disrespectful to me. "I don't disrespect nobody in this league," Durant said, according to the report. "I respect every coach, every player, everybody. I never say anything bad about anybody else or question why they do this or do that. So for them to say that about me, I don't even want to use no foul language. Earlier in the season after the Thunder beat the Celtics, after the game Kevin Garnett said that playing against Durant tonight was like playing against Michael Jordan.
Durant and his Thunder, have the daunting task of taking on the Lakers in the first round of the playoffs. Yes Durant has won the scoring crown, yes Durant has led his team to a 50 win season, and yes Durant has led his team to a playoff berth. Does Durant have what it takes to face Kobe Bryant and the defending NBA Champion Lakers? Many predictions have the Lakers sweeping the Thunder in the first round. Let's see if Durant and the Thunder have different plans for the Lakers and make the series competitive.
By Steven Spector - 4-15-10
