The Prince

Go ahead. Make fun of the acne and physique. I'll enjoy watching the pounding.

On March 3, 2007, I saw a blinding light beaming from underneath a closed door. That door, now nearly three years later, is barely hinged. In a few years, it will be obliterated to shit.

That day, I was casually finishing my routine of washing dishes and folding clothes while the previous night's escorts were still asleep, a Saturday morning staple. After they awoke, were refused breakfast, and left, I turned CBS on for whatever college basketball game they were showing, and switched back and forth between chores and my "aw, look how cute, he's pretending it matters" workout regiment. Nothing like getting shit done on a lazy Saturday while watching sports.

The game: (15)Texas at (3)Kansas.

It didn't take long to realize I was watching the best college basketball player I had ever seen. It didn't take long for me to fall in love with Kevin Durant.



Many of the clips towards the beginning of that video are from the Kansas game (Durant only spent one year in college, so if it's on the court with the obnoxiously large bird on it, that's the game I'm talking about). He did whatever he wanted. He dunked. He hit 3's in guys' faces. You could even tell the Kansas student section and fans were thinking, "Holy shit, this guy is good." Anytime he got the ball behind the three point line without a hand in his face, they let out a collective "NOOOOOO!!!!!", just like these poor fools used to.

Kansas won, but Durant put up 32 points in 34 minutes on 13-22 shooting (6-8 from deep!), 9 rebounds, 4 steals, and 2 assists. He had flashier numbers in college (37-23 against Texas Tech, 37-12 against Oklahoma State, including the game-winning shot) but this was the game I remember most. Not to mention he gave laughably skinny guys everywhere hope, and took a lot of crap when he couldn't even bench press 185 pounds at the pre-draft workouts, a feat he says in the most recent SI he still can't do.

Now? Well, Kevin's not up to much. Since December 13, Durant has averaged 32.6 PPG, scoring under 30 points just four times (25, 27, 29, and 28 - and he's scored 40 or more three times), shooting 54% from the field, 54% from three point range, and 89% from the stripe. His season average is 29.7 PPG, and has double-figure rebounds in 8 of his last 13 games, all while leading the youngest team in the league to a dramatic-to-say-the-least improvement on the brink of a playoff appearance.

By the way, Kevin Durant is 21 years old.

Scoring Average at 21 Years of Age

LeBron James - 31.4

Michael Jordan - 28.2

Carmelo Anthony - 26.5

Kobe Bryant - 22.5

Not bad company, eh? Take notice.