Popovich praises KD:
3. Popovich’s admiration for Durant runs deep
A reporter opened Popovich’s pregame media session asking him about his memories of playoff battles with the Durant-led Oklahoma City Thunder.
“I don’t remember any of those battles. I just remember him on the Olympic team,” Popovich said. “He was great. I love him. All the other battles don’t matter.”
Popovich goes out of his way to praise all of the Team USA players he coached to a gold medal at the Tokyo Olympics, but he seems to have a particular fondness for Durant.
Over six games in Japan, Durant averaged 20.3 points and shot 52.9 percent from the field, 37.5 percent from 3-point range and 90.5 percent from the free-throw line. In the gold medal game against France, he pumped in 29 points.
“He’s the best,” Popovich said. “You can’t stop him. There’s no way that he can be stopped. Now, you can go double team him for 48 minutes, and he’s smart enough to give it up, but that usually doesn’t happen. Somebody might box-and-one him, but I haven’t seen it lately. I’ve gotta believe no matter what happens, between he and Monty and and Chris Paul and Book, they’ll figure out what they need to do. He’s just got everything with that size and able to get a shot wherever he wants it. He loves it.”
A big factor in Popovich having so much respect for Durant stems from the work ethic of the former Texas standout.
“Nobody knows how hard he works,” Popovich said. “Nobody knows what he does before and after practice, especially after practice. When we were with USA, we’d have a practice and then he’d go over under a bucket with one of the coaches and he might go for another 25, 35 minutes. Hard. With every one of his moves in the book. I mean, hard. From inside the bucket, to the post, to the 3-point line, coming off this movement and that movement. We were all in amazement just watching him.”