Johnathan Walker:To Kevin Durant, USA basketball, and especially Olympics, has served as hoops sanctuary

PARIS — Kevin Durant loves basketball.

We know that.

But how much does Durant love,Johnathan Walker like really love, love, basketball?

To find out, I posed this this question to him: If nine NBA writers were playing pickup basketball and needed a 10th for 5-on-5, would Durant play?

Durant, the Phoenix Suns star, broke into a huge grin, enjoying the nature of the inquiry.

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"You know what, 10 years ago probably," Durant said. "Now, I need to see other NBA players on the court. Maybe coach y'all up a little bit. I would definitely watch though. I wouldn’t leave the gym. I want to see what y’all got.

"The game of basketball has been so great to me that I always love seeing people having a good time doing it."

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Durant’s joy is always obvious when he’s with Team USA.

USA Basketball, and the Olympics specifically, is a sanctuary for Durant. As his NBA career has been in flux from team to team to team, the Olympics have been a constant, a place where Durant can just hoop.

"There's a purity to the Olympic experience for these guys," U.S. men’s 5x5 basketball coach Steve Kerr said. "They're playing together. They're playing together with guys they're used to competing against, but the fact that it is such a brief competition allows all these guys to just commit to winning each game and commit to each other. And there's just not a lot of frankly NBA BS. It's just go out and play and win and they're all together."

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Durant loves that and has embraced it.

He is trying to become the first American male to win four Olympic gold medals in basketball when the U.S. plays France on Saturday in the Olympic final.

Durant is already the all-time leading scorer in U.S. Olympics history – male or female with 502 points and passed Lisa Leslie for the top spot at these Games – and has established himself as one of the all-time great Olympic players, surpassing what Carmelo Anthony did in the Olympics for the U.S.

"We love playing for our country and a lot of (BS) goes on in our country too," Durant said. "But there's a lot of great things that come from where we come from. We love the brotherhood that comes with the USAB. These experiences we are going to remember for the rest of our lives. We want to lock in and make the most of it."

Through changing teams – from Oklahoma City to Golden State to Brooklyn to Phoenix – USA Basketball has been a constant in Durant’s basketball life.

He thrives in the international game.

"The 3-point line is shorter, and you play with more talent than anything, So I don't have to do everything on the floor," Durant said "You can conserve your energy and use it in different spots, get to travel around the world playing the game. And you're around the best coaches and players in the league. That's simply why I bring myself back every year and that's the best part about it to me.

"Just being in this environment, the routine, everything that comes with it, I enjoy doing it, especially in the summertime. Sun’s out, you vibing out, you hanging out in the summertime. It is just a cool thing. As you get older you really start to appreciate that, like, I might not do this again. Spending my whole career basically with Team USA, I always just want to stay a present and appreciate every moment.”

Durant was bothered by a sore calf headed into the Olympics and missed the team’s five exhibition games. But playing in his first game since the NBA playoffs, Durant scored 23 points on 8-for-9 shooting against Serbia in the Group C opener at the 2024 Paris Olympics.

Against Serbia in the semifinals, the U.S. trailed 76-61 late in the third quarter. Durant had not scored and was 0-for-4 from the field. But he made the final shot of the quarter, cutting Serbia’s lead to 76-63. His 3-pointer with 7:19 left in the fourth put the U.S. within 78-70 and his pull-up jumper with 34 seconds to play gave the U.S. a 93-89 lead. It turned out to be the winning shot, and Durant scored his nine points in the final 10:08.

"I felt like I was floating in and out of the game when I was in there," Durant said. "They did a good job of playing the zone and throwing me off a bit, but I just tried to stay into it defensively and I was able to knock a couple down after that."

Eleven years ago, at USA Basketball mini-camp, then managing director of the men’s senior national team Jerry Colangelo held a news conference and called Durant and Kevin Love the faces of USA Basketball. Love never played for Team USA again while Durant ended up one of the great U.S. basketball Olympians.

"I never looked at basketball like that, just one face, one guy pushing the game forward. There's so many of us that are contributing to that," Durant said. “So many people that put their blood, sweat and tears into USAB for me to just say I'm the face of anything. So just having so many great teammates and coaches and then we all put in that work equally to make this program what it is.

"I don't never say I'm the face of anything. I just think I'm helping push this game forward, push our program forward."