Many athletes have wind beneath their wings. It might be a parent, a coach, a teacher. Kevin Durant basketball star player of the Oklahoma City Thunder thanked those who helped him along the way during his acceptance speech when he was awarded The NBA Most Valuable Player award on Tuesday. He said his mother was the real MVP in his life.
Jon Wertheim, executive editor of Sports Illustrated wrote about the current struggling athletes for an upcoming issue. He wonders what is being done for those who haven’t reached the level that Kevin Durant has. At least 100,000 kids sleep under bleachers or shower in the locker room. Often coaches and teachers know and bring extra peanut butter sandwiches. Sometimes the kids hide it. Some of the kids are literally homeless.
Perhaps this story is the flip side of yesterday’s dark story of the New Jersey thug football players. We need to remember how many kids really defy all odds by athletic accomplishment. Many good and decent adults out there support these kids who might be sleeping in a the family car, if there even is a family and who are practicing and going to school on an empty stomach.
What special adults can you think of who have gone that extra mile for kids who might need athletics to “make something out of themselves” when those kids often didn’t have the most basic of necessities? What adults have steered kids towards sports when the natural inclination was to be a thug?
I’m sick of Durant.
A. He was, in this contrived speech, emulating what he saw LeBron James doing the year before. He’s riding LeBron’s jock, trying to compete with him in every way. He did a slicker job, it looked good on camera, but I’m not particularly affected by it. Whereas when LeBron was up there the year before, and you could feel his pain and need for friendship and understand why he plays the game the way he does, it was very moving, to me.
B. Durant QUIT on Team USA in the FIBA games a couple of months ago. After Paul George broke his leg, when the team needed Durant even more, he absconded within a day or two. Quit on the national team, that was building around him – he was the number one option. To go focus on shooting commercials and working with Jay-Z to become a bigger brand name. PUNK move.
C. Context – Durant didn’t deserve the MVP award, he’s half a player. Then he gives this long choreographed speech, and quits on the national team. F him and his Sprint commercials.
I actually don’t care about him the athlete. I care about his tribute to his mother and the idea that none of these athletes really got to the top alone. They all had someone in their corner.
there are kids out there every day living in poverty like most of us will never know or experience.
Actually I did the article to validate Cato made, regardless of how rudely, that I think is an important point: there are lots of young folks out there who need the support of athletic programs and coaches to pull them up.
On the larger issue, I have heard a lot of guys say that athletics gave them something to do and that without it, and without coaches as male role models, things would have turned out badly.
Absolutely. I can’t tell you the impact those “old men” had on me at my father’s funeral back in ’97. I could remember most of them from being boys he coached. they would come over and hang out sometimes. At least 10 of them spoke about how the influence he had on them, and saw to it that they amounted to something. My younger brothers don’t really remember all that because they weren’t born. My father died in 97. These guys had to have been playing in the fairly early 1950’s. When my father died, these guys were probably in their early 60’s. They still showed up at his funeral and paid tribute. I think that bears powerful witness to the influence a coach or any interested adult could have on a young person.
Wow Rick, a little harsh on Kevin don’t you think?
In my opinion he is a far better player than LeBron. Better ball handler, passer and without a doubt a better jump shot. Plus, Ill NEVER like LeBron for what he did back on May 5th 2006. With time winding down in a very crucial playoff game LeBron walked up the key and got into Gilbert Arenas’ face just before he was about to take 2 free throws. The punk trash talked him at a very critical point in the game, to this day I still don’t know how in the world LeBron didn’t get a technical for that. Who does that? It reminded me of the ending of Teen Wolf where the bad guy stands under the basket while Michael J Fox was taking his free throws.
Well, after that, Gilbert missed both free throws. Damon Jones hit a deuce with four seconds left and the rest is history. The Wizards ended up losing the series and bounced out of the playoffs. That one act of bad sportsmanship by LeBron was the turning point in that series and Ill never forget it. F LeBron, I’ve hated him ever since.
Kevin Durant is one of my favorite basketball players of all time. He has one of the most complete games of anyone in modern times. Plus, he did go to one of my many alma maters, Montrose Christian. But when I went there is was a tiny school, maybe 25 or so kids in each grade. So I might be a little biased… but LeBron is a punk. Look at how he sold out Miami just to get a max contract. Hell, he makes $50+ million a year just in endorsements. He could have stayed in Miami for a slight pay cut but nope, $75+ million a year isn’t enough for him, he NEEDS $77+ million a year. Douche.
“In my opinion he is a far better player than LeBron. Better ball handler, passer and without a doubt a better jump shot. ”
Oh, come on. That’s half the game. James is a defensive force, Durant is not very good on defense.
“Plus, Ill NEVER like LeBron for what he did back on May 5th 2006. With time winding down in a very crucial playoff game LeBron walked up the key and got into Gilbert Arenas’ face just before he was about to take 2 free throws. The punk trash talked him at a very critical point in the game, to this day I still don’t know how in the world LeBron didn’t get a technical for that”
I remember that well. I didn’t like it. But if Arenas isn’t complaining – and he’s not, he says they were friends and it was all good – then that’s that.
I’ve talked to people who met Durant when he was out and about in DC in recent years. They say he’s a very nice guy. But it seems to me that a guy who quits on the national team because he wants to focus on his shoe contract – and that’s what happened, days after he was in meetings at the offices of UnderArmour discussing a 325 million dollar shoe contract – is not such a great guy. I also found it interesting that he was engaged to a woman for marriage less than a year ago (Monica Wright), but she didn’t make the cut of his speech.
Increasingly, I don’t like the guy. Yes, he’s a great offensive player. He’s Dirk Novitski with better ballhandling skill. He scores a lot of points. It makes him one of the most valuable players in the league. But he’s no James.
And, LeBron James is an ambassador for the game, married the woman who raises his children, and is a family man. He handles more pressure on a daily basis than we will ever face, gracefully. Let’s not call him a “punk”.
By contrast, Durant has been seen leaving strip clubs fondling strippers, hired a gangster rapper as his agent, and quit FIBA basketball to focus on endorsement deals.
If we have to pick one to hold up as a hero, put me on team James.
Ohhh and let’s not forget this – http://www.tmz.com/2014/06/11/the-game-kevin-durant-is-a-sore-loser/
“Yeah, in my last relationship, I had to make a decision about compromising myself as a woman” – Durant’s former fiancée, Monica Wright.