The US Men’s National Basketball Team was looking for redemption in 2008, and Kevin Durant might have been too young to be a part of it
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In 2006, an 18-year-old Kevin Durant was one of the best high school basketball players in the country. He could have gotten into his favourite childhood team, the Toronto Raptors if it wasn’t for NBA’s one-and-done rule.
Coming in as the 2nd overall pick in 2007 for the Seattle Supersonics after becoming the first freshman to ever win the Naismith College Player of the Year award, KD announced his arrival in the greatest basketball league.
But it was a little too late to prove himself for becoming a part of the Redeem Team despite averaging well over 20 points, 4 rebounds, 2 assists, a steal, and almost a block (0.9) in his debut season.
In 2008 off-season, the United States Men’s National Basketball Team had a point to prove in the Beijing Olympics. After losing out on both Silver and Gold in Athens, in 2004, they wanted themselves redemption.
USMNT assembled all the top basketball talent in the country to get themselves a revenge party and the team got popular as “Redeem Team” by the time practice and qualifying games started.
Kevin Durant was upset by his snub from the Beijing Olympics squad
Every superstar in the NBA wanted to be a part of it, and KD had started considering himself among them, given the fact that he was proving himself in the practice.
But when the squad was announced for Beijing, the Slim Reaper’s name wasn’t in it. And the 19-year-old was genuinely hurt by it.
“I was disappointed not making the [2008] Olympic team. I felt I played my way onto the team. Nobody really expected me to play that well in the practices, but I was 19, and I felt like I got snubbed. I felt disrespected, and I was like, ‘Nah, this can’t go down like that. It’s not happening again.’ I was just so upset that I wasn’t part of the Redeem Team. You could tell those guys had so much fun playing with each other and I wanted that even if I was on the bench. I just wanted to learn, soak that energy up from those guys,” Durant said, according to CBS’s Sam Quinn.
The Redeem Team did what they were supposed to. Kobe Bryant, LeBron James, Dwayne Wade, and Carmelo Anthony starrer team won the Gold without losing a single game throughout the tournament.
Since then, they won Gold in all three Olympics and Durant was the team’s lead scorer in all three. That has made him the all-time leading scorer in the National team.
Also read: Kevin Durant Reveals His Disdain for Questions About Nets Drama, “Can We Move On Past That?”
KD definitely made the snub his personal redemption and achieved it with ease.
