“Wasn’t Familiar with the Left Leg Takeoffs”: Kevin Durant Issues Apology to Oso Ighodaro Following His Monster Dunk

Oso Ighodaro, who was picked late in the second round by the Phoenix Suns in this year’s Draft, has started winning hearts in the Phoenix camp. During the game against the Orlando Magic (which the Suns lost by 10 points), Ighodaro threw down a monster slam that might’ve helped take Kevin Durant’s mind off the loss.

The Suns’ official Instagram handle posted a clip of Ighodaro’s dunk on their page yesterday. The rookie received a lot of praise from the fans in the comment section. KD, in the meantime, re-shared the clip on his IG stories and issued an apology to the 22-year-old for not being “familiar” with his game.

Durant wrote, “Sorry @oso_i, I wasn’t familiar with the left leg takeoffs.”

The dunk was certainly worthy of all the praise. After getting a pass from Tyus Jones from behind the free throw line, the 22-year-old took off despite players like Goga Bitadze being alert on defense.

KD on Suns rookie Oso pic.twitter.com/i1f2WTpJeT

— tragicpatek (@tragicpatek) December 2, 2024

His dunk was technically very sound as well. It was a well-coordinated jump off the left foot. While most right-handed athletes prefer using their left foot to leap, it’s very common that when they go for dunks, they rely on using both legs to gain more momentum.

Ighodaro getting the job done with a left leg jump and no dribbles made the hooper in KD very happy.

 

View this post on Instagram

 

A post shared by Phoenix Suns (@suns)

The 36-year-old must’ve been very pleased with the play on a personal level as well. KD has started mentoring and imparting his decades of basketball wisdom to the youngsters in the Phoenix camp. Other than Ighodaro, Ryan Dunn is another player he has taken under his wing.

Kevin Durant’s expectations from the rookies

During an interaction with the media, the Suns superstar was asked how he feels looking at Ighodaro and Dunn contributing to the team’s success. KD stated that even though they are very young in the game, the organization expects them to do well as they’re immensely talented.

He said, “We expect that out of them. I think that’s what they bring to our team. It’s that energy, that aggressiveness on the defense, that physicality on defense, and then challenging at the rim. I think that’s something that coach always emphasized to everybody not just the bigs but everybody just kinda have that collision mindset at the rim.”

KD is pleased by their urge to get on the floor for the team every night. He believes that they are setting really high standards for themselves by doing so and if they continue to do the same for a while, they’ll be an integral part of the team.