Houston Rockets superstar forward Kevin Durant said that he plans on suiting up for his country again for the 2028 Summer Games in Los Angeles, per ESPN. Durant, the U.S. men’s all-time leading scorer in Olympic competition, will be nearing 40 when the Summer Games arrive, and acknowledged his plans are contingent on him still being able to play at a high level.
Some believed that the 2024 Paris Games would be Durant’s swan song, but he’s pushing back against that narrative.
“You guys, the media have projected that,” he said. “That narrative, where did the last dance thing come from? I didn’t say I wasn’t playing. LeBron said he wasn’t. You didn’t hear that from me or Steph.”
Fellow Team USA standouts LeBron James and Stephen Curry are both unlikely to play, but Durant wants to contribute.
“Hell yeah, I want to play,” Durant said. “I would love to, but I gotta stay on top of my game. I’m not expecting; I want to produce on the floor and make Grant and whoever is making the decisions want to put me on the team. I don’t want — not just for seniority. I want to still prove I can help the team win.”
“Today, yeah, I feel like I’ll put my name in that hat.”
Durant also wants to prove that the rest of the world isn’t catching up to the U.S. in terms of basketball talent.
“I just don’t like the talk around the USA versus European style of how you approach the game,” Durant recently told ESPN. “All I hear is, ‘AAU is destroying the game, the Euros do it right while the Americans do it wrong.’
“It’s a lot of bulls— with that. I can read between the lines on that; it’s a shot at Black Americans. We’re controlling the sport; they’re tired of us controlling the sport.
“‘France is coming for you.’ Really? We smacked them boys.”
About Qwame Skinner
Qwame Skinner has loved both writing and sports his entire life. In addition to his sports coverage at Comeback Media, Qwame writes novels, and his debut; The First Casualty, an adult fantasy, is out now.