miami-if Kevin Durant Ultimately deciding to pursue more Olympic gold, Erik Spoelstra became interested in training him.
Spoelstra, the Miami Heat coach Who will lead the US men’s basketball team At the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics, he said Saturday he is aware of Durant’s recent comments about his ability to play for a fifth gold medal.
And the concept is clearly interesting.
“It’s unbelievable for him to say that,” Spoelstra, an assistant with the 2024 Olympic team, said before the Heat beat Durant. Houston Rockets 115-105. “You know, it’s the culture of USA Basketball. You just want the best American players to raise their hand and say, ‘I want to do this.'”
When the 2024 Games are completed, Durant said he would not rule out playing in the Olympics again. And Durant told ESPN’s Vincent Goodwill in a recent interview that he would “love” to play in the Los Angeles Games, adding that he wants his level of play to convince USA Basketball managing director Grant Hill, national team director Sean Ford, Spoelstra and anyone else involved in the selection process that he deserves a spot.
“I want to create on the floor and create for Grant and whoever is making the decisions wants to keep me on the team,” Durant said in that interview. “I don’t want to – not just for seniority. I still want to prove I can help the team win.”
On Saturday he elaborated: “Hopefully I get that opportunity. I have to be on top of my game. I keep saying that. I want to earn my spot on the team. Have to be on top of my game and hopefully I’ll be up there with Coach Spo and his staff.”
Durant reflected on his time with Spoelstra at the Paris Games, which received rave reviews.
“I’ve always been impressed by Coach Spo from a distance, but to be in the same locker room with him, to see his intensity, to see his scouts, made me want to run through the wall,” Durant said. “He was very excited to be an assistant coach on Team USA and he understood that we wanted to make a statement there as a team and he supported us.”
Durant’s place in USA basketball lore was secured long ago.
He is the only four-time gold medalist in men’s Olympic basketball history after winning gold medals at London 2012, Rio de Janeiro 2016, the Tokyo Games, which were delayed by a year to 2021, then Paris in 2024. In Paris, she became the career leader in points for the US in Olympic competition, surpassing Lisa Leslie.
“You can feel his passion to represent the country and have USA on the jersey,” Spoelstra said. “He has been incredible in those competitions.”
Durant said a big takeaway from his time with Spoelstra in Paris was seeing how someone who is a head coach — an NBA champion head coach — works as an assistant. As part of Golden State coach Steve Kerr’s staff in Paris, Spoelstra was on the field working individually with players after practice and before games, throwing passes in warmups, even rebounding for them.
Durant said, “Just doing the dirty work. Spo was very good at that.” “He made it exciting to come to work every day.”
Spoelstra says the 37-year-old Durant’s game is timeless — proven by the fact that the No. 6 scorer in NBA history, who is on pace to surpass Michael Jordan for the No. 5 spot in the coming weeks, is still putting up almost unheard of numbers for someone at that age. At 26.2 points per game this season – 32 of them coming on Saturday – Durant could overtake Jordan in about 10 games, or around the third week of March.
“He’s a complete tactician in terms of his work ethic and his practice,” Spoelstra said. “It’s a big lesson for all the young players coming into the league. One thing is to make shots and the other thing is to work on player development and I think watching him work over the summer, those six weeks, is a lesson for all of us.
“After practice, before practice, on the days in between, he’s going out there with the intention of trying — even at this age — to get better and improve. What a beautiful mentality that is.”
Information from the Associated Press was used in this report.
