Every time Kevin Durant sets a historic record, he reminds people that it’s about winning, not records.
Now he’s one win away from becoming the most decorated man in Olympic basketball history.
Durant already The U.S. team breaks the all-time Olympic scoring record He won both the men’s and women’s tournaments. And on Saturday, the former Nets star will try for a record-equalling fourth gold medal when the U.S. plays France in the final. And he did it all in front of his biggest fan and the woman he loves. Called the True MVPhis mother, Wanda;
“It will be an awe-inspiring moment for all of us,” Wanda Durant told The Post by phone from France. “I know it sounds cliché at times, but when you think about it, it shows you can achieve a lot in life and still continue to perform at a high level and continue to reach your goals — goals you didn’t set for yourself, but that are just as achievable.”
“So, even if you’ve had some success, you shouldn’t give up. You never know what’s going to happen, so you just keep going. I think that’s the lesson of what he’s done and the message that he’s sent.”
The list of accomplishments is long and historic.
The 36-year-old Durant is a four-time league scoring champion, a two-time NBA champion and Finals MVP in both NBA championships — impressive on the league stage, but maybe even more impressive on the world stage.
Perhaps the greatest natural scorer of all time, injuries and absences to Nets teammates Kyrie Irving and James Harden limited his production in Brooklyn — the only blemish on the Hall of Famer’s resume — but the talent surrounding him on the U.S. national team helped him become at his best.
Durant, with Wanda watching on Tuesday, broke Lisa Leslie’s record for most points in U.S. basketball history. If the team wins against France (Saturday, 3:30 p.m. on NBC), he’ll pass Carmelo Anthony as the all-time Olympic gold medal winner. Shams Charania of The Athletic Durant reportedly set to start In the final.
It will be a cherished moment for Wanda.
“I’m just so proud of my son, like any parent would be in awe of what their child has worked so hard to achieve,” Wanda said. “So I was just so happy to be a part of it (Tuesday) and to be able to see it and to be able to see it with my own eyes. I’m just so proud of him, like any mother with a son would be.”
Durant has scored 503 points in an Olympic game, making him just the eighth player, male or female, to reach that milestone, and he is also the eighth-leading scorer in NBA history.
Wanda has been present for many of those highlights, missing the 2016 Rio Olympics and the 2021 Tokyo Olympics due to COVID-19 restrictions, but was there in Paris to soak up the moments. Joining his son for post-match meal Celebrating the victory over Serbia.
“If someone had told me something like this would happen, I would have never imagined it at the time,” Wanda says. “It’s not that I didn’t believe in him, but basketball has taken him across different genres of life, different professional communities, different ecosystems, different spheres. And basketball has opened the world up to him.”
“If there’s one thing that struck me, it’s how basketball crosses so many different genres. But when it came to Kevin as a person and his talent, I knew that his hard work and never give up attitude would enable him to achieve any goal he set for himself.
Kevin Durant, on the other hand, doesn’t care about the numbers. He praised Leslie. He called it the “gold standard” and said he was focused on winning the gold medal.
“Records are there to be broken, so someone will come along and do what I did,” Durant told reporters in France. “My focus is to win this gold medal.”
Durant could finish in the top five on the men’s Olympic career scoring list, with Hall of Famer Manu Ginobili of Argentina in fifth place with 523 points.
“He’s Captain America status. All that’s left is for him to win his fourth gold medal,” said Devin Booker, Durant’s teammate on the U.S. national team and the Phoenix Suns.
After both Harden and Irving demanded and pressed for trades in Brooklyn, Durant was the last remaining star before asking to be sent to Phoenix at the trade deadline in 2023. Booker has repeatedly spoken glowingly about Durant’s work ethic, which Durant has openly credited to the single mother who raised him in Prince George’s County, Maryland, just outside southeast Washington, D.C.
“I’m proud that my son got his foundation of work ethic and hard work from me and from me,” Wanda told The Washington Post, “and he’s taken that and built on that foundation that was instilled in him, so I’m not too proud of that achievement. As parents, we instill the values that we think are important, and that’s what I did.”
“But what I’m most proud of is that he didn’t just rely on my work ethic to achieve what he wanted in his life. He built on the foundation of the work ethic that was instilled in him throughout his upbringing and now he makes it his own. And then when he inspires other people, it can become part of their foundation. So, that’s what I’m most proud of is that he was able to build on what was instilled in him.”
Brooklyn in Paris
Several current Nets players have also been busy in Paris in recent weeks.
New Brooklyn coach Jordi Fernandez led Canada to the quarterfinals, where they lost to host nation France, who went on to reach the final.
And Nets point guard Dennis Schroder will lead Germany in the bronze medal game against Serbia on Saturday.
