Kevin Durant | Biography, Stats, Olympics, & Facts | Britannica

Drafting by the SuperSonics and move to Oklahoma City

Durant was the lone bright spot in Seattle during his rookie campaign, as the team’s new owners demanded a publicly funded arena that the city refused to finance, and the team’s threat to relocate to another city kept fans away in droves. Durant averaged 20.3 points per game that season and was the runaway winner of the NBA Rookie of the Year award. His dynamic play could not heal the rift between the team and the city, however, and at season’s end the Sonics moved to Oklahoma City and became the Thunder. The relocation had no noticeable effect on Durant as he increased his scoring, rebounding, assists, and steals averages in his second season. He began a streak of five straight All-Star Game appearances and first-team All-NBA honors during the 2009–10 season, when he also led the Thunder to the franchise’s first playoff appearance in its new home. In 2011–12 the Thunder—behind Durant’s 28.5 points per game in the postseason—advanced to the NBA finals, where the team lost to the Miami Heat in a five-game series.

The 6-foot 11-inch (2.11-meter) forward proved to be an increasingly difficult matchup as he honed his outside game—Durant could shoot over or run past plodding post defenders and tower over smaller guards. Beginning with the 2009–10 season, the dynamic Durant led the NBA in total points for five straight seasons and in scoring average four times (he finished second in 2012–13). In his dominant 2013–14 MVP season, he set career highs of 32 points and 5.5 assists per game (along with 7.4 rebounds per contest). The following season saw Durant play in just 27 games because of a fracture in his right foot and a troubled recovery process. He returned to form in 2015–16, averaging 28.2 points per game and a career-high 8.2 rebounds per contest that season. In the playoffs, Durant led the Thunder to a 3–1 series lead in the conference finals over the Golden State Warriors, who had set an NBA record during the regular season by amassing 73 victories, but Oklahoma City ultimately lost the series in seven games. During the following offseason, Durant shocked the NBA by leaving the Thunder in free agency to sign with the Warriors.