Today, Kevin Durant is one of the best players in the National Basketball Association and has unanimously been agreed upon as one of the greatest in the history of the league. However, it was once speculated that he wouldn’t even be a serviceable player. After the man’s arms and legs have always looked like elongated sticks. Many believed that his body didn’t have the strength to do much heavy lifting whatsoever. And as the NBA Draft combine ahead of the 2007 NBA draft revealed, the doubters weren’t wrong about his raw strength, culminating in a rather interesting story.
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Kevin Durant couldn’t even bench press 200lbs when he entered the NBA
For those that use the more popular system here, 200 lbs equate to 90 kg. And well, what Kevin Durant tried, and couldn’t bench press was a lot lower than that. In the NBA Draft Combine, the now Suns star was asked to pick up 185lbs (a little less than 84 kgs) as per Bleacher Report, something he just couldn’t lift up.
What happened next, was absolutely everybody discounting him, with Colin Cowherd’s this take eventually becoming famous for capturing the popular opinion from that time perfectly. Take a look at the clip in Freezing Cold Takes’ tweet below.
6/7/2007: One of my all time faves. @ColinCowherd goes IN on Kevin Durant (@KDTrey5) before the Draft after hearing KDs pre-draft camp workout numbers. pic.twitter.com/MBj9FtgKjM
— Freezing Cold Takes (@OldTakesExposed) June 7, 2020
Of course, after being discounted and ridiculed to such a high degree, all the hate had gotten to Durant’s ears. And years later, he posted this little statement in response to it on Twitter.
Can I take a victory lap or I gotta wait until I retire? @ColinCowherd https://t.co/eiaOmVB7O8
— Kevin Durant (@KDTrey5) June 22, 2022
As per Bleacher Report, Kevin Durant says that he can now bench about 315 lbs (Almost 143 kgs). And while this sports news company had a hard time believing it to be the truth in their article, there is a video of the man doing so on YouTube, posted by PressCAPLOCK. Take a look at it below.
To be clear here, Kevin Durant is still a very slender man. However, if there is any lesson to learn here, it is that the man is far stronger than he looks.