The past year or so has proved to be a tough one on Oklahoma City Thunder star Kevin Durant. The 2014 NBA Most Valuable Player underwent three foot surgeries for a nagging Jones fracture which resulted in him missing a grand total of 55 games this past season. Durant watched his Thunder falter throughout the season as they limped to a 45-37 record, narrowly missing the playoffs despite the gaudy numbers of Russell Westbrook.
We can only imagine how unbearable last season was for KD as he is one of the most passionate players in the league. When asked what Durant thinks about people underestimating his ability to come back, he responded sharply. The following from ESPN.com’s Royce Young:
“It used to piss me off but I love it now,” Durant told ESPN.com. “Just gotta show and prove. I don’t deserve to be up there with them this year. Next year is a different story.”
In ESPN’s annual top 500 list of the best NBA players, Durant was ranked 8th after being 2nd overall in 2012 and 2013. Sure 8th is nothing to sneeze at but we all know it’s not good enough for Durant, even if he only played 27 games last year:
“Sometimes you gotta remind people what you do,” Durant said last season. “They tend to forget.”
Even though the reason for the drop was obvious, that doesn’t mean KD is taking it lightly. Durant will just use all of this as motivation in his performance next season. A 6’11” scoring machine was already scary enough, a 6’11” scoring machine with a massive chip on his shoulder could be downright terrifying.
