Kevin Durant couldn't stop the chatter and endless questions about him and his character upon leaving the Oklahoma City Thunder this past offseason. The media scrutiny followed from the offseason to the regular season to even the offseason, where even ultimate victory would be a lose-lose situation for the 2014 MVP and eventual 2017 Finals MVP.
His mother Wanda saw everything transpire from the moment he made the switch to play for the Golden State Warriors, finally seeing the fruits of her son's labor during Thursday's championship parade on his native Seat Pleasant, Maryland; as he held the Larry O'Brien trophy from his vehicle.
“I’m elated. Especially after so much ridicule,” Wanda Durant told Michael Lee of The Vertical from a special room in the recreation center known as Durant’s Den. “He proved that he never stopped working. He always worked for what he wanted. He dug in.”
“He said, ‘I know what I have to do for myself.’ And no matter what happened, he said he knew the decision he made was the best decision. But this was the cherry on top, the championship. To come back and be celebrated for something that you wanted and you started this place working for it, it’s a blessing.”
If one thing is certain, Durant has never expressed regret leaving Oklahoma City or in the way that he did it, noting decisions are tough to make and people's feelings will get hurt no matter how the breakup is handled. Durant loved Oklahoma City and the city loved him, but the breakup between the two was inevitable as he sought to take his career to the next level.
“It was difficult to see, to hear,” Wanda Durant said about the negativity her son had to endure in the past year. “And I still read the stuff on social media. It’s crazy. But I didn’t have the immediate notion to protect him, because he’s a man. He made a decision and that reaction came with the decision. So it was a part of him solidifying who he is as a man, to take the ridicule, to accept it and deal with it and move on from it.”
“I didn’t like it as his mom. There were times I rebutted some of it – quite nicely, I think, honestly. But I didn’t want to protect him. He stood up and you have to show them who you are.”
Durant recently put President Donald Trump on blast, denouncing his reaction to the violent white nationalist march in Charlottesville, Virginia; along with announcing his intention to turn down any potential invitation to the White House this coming season.
“Kevin has always allowed his personality and his game to speak for him,” Wanda Durant told The Vertical. “He’s a little more vocal now than he was then, but that’s not surprising, either, because he was very vocal at home, as a kid, where he was comfortable, in close quarters.”
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