To Kevin Durant, the Right Platform Creates Greatness
- May 14, 2025
“The proving grounds are right here,” Kevin Durant told his team of young players. He was addressing Team Durant, his Nike Elite Youth Basketball (EYBL) squad, ahead of its opening weekend of the EYBL season in Mesa, AZ.
The gymnasium would be filled with family, friends, as well as coaches and scouts in quarter-zips, scribbling notes about breakout performances, gutsy plays and potential futures in their programs. If any of the 16-year-olds had opening day jitters, Durant understood. “I know how important this time is,” he told them.
Durant speaks from firsthand experience. Twenty years ago, he was that same competitive hopeful out of Prince George’s County, MD, battling against other amateur teams across the DMV and beyond. And according to Durant, the future of grassroots basketball is in good hands through leagues like Nike EYBL, because of the tools they provide for young players. In the quotes below, Durant shares about his earliest memories as an amateur player, the edge that EYBL has over other amateur programs, and his big ambitions for grassroots leagues moving forward.
I grew up in a basketball culture whose history set the tone for us to follow. The talent coming of the DMV circuit was real. Dating back to the ‘60s and ‘70s, you got talented players from PG County, DC area, Baltimore, Northern Virginia. They built a culture around being an amateur player who could move into the college ranks and into the pros. By the time my generation came around in the early 2000s, we knew we had to reach that standard.
You never forget your breakout game at that level. Mine was a Memorial Day tournament in New Orleans. I was playing for the DC Devils. It was 2005. I think I had 36 points in my first game down there, playing a team out of Detroit. It was one of the first times I had full confidence in all of my abilities. I was in full command of what I was doing. A lot of people who were in attendance for that game, whether it was my friends or the media, knew how I was coming into my own.
For the player who wants it, amateur ball teaches you how to play within a lifestyle of the game. With so many practices, so many games, so many tournaments, we were around organized basketball for hours a day. The biggest lesson youth ball taught me at that level was knowing how to live a complete lifestyle of basketball, from the moment your day starts.
Above all else, the quality I look for in my players [on Team Durant] is in their love for the game. They also got to have toughness, they have to be versatile, they have to guard multiple positions. But that love of the game is what helps them transition from EYBL to college to the NBA. We’ve had guys like Jordan Hawkins and Dariq Whitehead who’ve gone through our program and made it to the NBA. I’m grateful for every player who’s given us the opportunity to coach them up and help them on their journey.
The structure behind EYBL is one of its biggest strengths. It’s not as wide open for teams to do what they want as it was back when I was playing. Now, EYBL has created a clear structure from the top down. It runs almost like a league of its own. I want to see it keep evolving. Maybe we start turning these programs into academies. EYBL is already special. I think it could evolve into something even bigger.
Whether or not they make the pros, young players need the experience of playing for a vision that’s bigger than themselves. The end goal could be a trophy, like for Peach Jam, but reaching that is made up of other goals, like coming together with your teammates to problem-solve and learning how to be coachable. It’s important for players to know early on what playing on a team is like, because it’s a theme that continues as you become an adult.
I still love the game — and I’ll do whatever I can to stay around and contribute. I’m trying to lead by example with these young guys, who have their futures ahead of them. They can look at my own journey and see themselves in me.
The Nike KD18 EYBL Rocket Power is available now. The next stop of the EYBL season is the weekend of May 17 in Memphis.