In a recent interview with Alex Kennedy of HoopsHype, Golden State Warriors superstar forward Kevin Durant opened up about the players he studied while growing up in Maryland. Durant admits that the first player he tried to emulate was former Warriors forward Billy Owens, who was selected No. 3 overall in the 1991 NBA Draft.
“The first guy I studied was Billy Owens, who played at Syracuse,” Durant told HoopsHype. “He was the first guy who I watched film of and tried to emulate his game. Then, from there, it escalated and I started watching a lot more players – from Vince Carter to T-Mac to Dirk to Kobe to LeBron.”
Point guard Quinn Cook, currently a two-way player in the Warriors' organization, grew up alongside his current teammate Durant and said the two were very close despite the age gap.
“He’s always been like a big brother to me because I met him when I was about 7 years old and he was 12 years old,” Cook said of Durant. “We were in the same AAU program, the P.G. Jaguars, but he was on the older team. We came from this small county where we all know each other. He took me under his wing early on.”
Cook also said that he watched Durant develop rapidly right in front of his eyes into the MVP-caliber player that he is today with Golden State.
“He was always really good, he was always tall, he always had that length and he could always shoot,” Cook said. “Then, he started to become the player that he is today and all I could say is, ‘Wow.’”
In his second season with the Warriors, the nine-time NBA All-Star is currently averaging a team-high 25.9 points on 52.2 percent shooting from the field, 6.8 rebounds, 5.5 assists and 1.9 blocked shots per game.
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