Kevin Durant Dreams of Bringing Back the Seattle Supersonics

Do you want to be a part of the Seattle Supersonics if it was available to you at some point in your life? Without a doubt. Without a doubt. I feel like that franchise, for one, is an iconic brand within the NBA. I feel like that market is a basketball market that needs the influence of the NBA team in that city, so to continue to inspire that city and produce more and more basketball players. Because I believe that. I believe if the city has an NBA team, you will get more and more kids inspired to want to become NBA players, as opposed to not having a team. And it's a franchise I play for, so I have some pride for it. And I believe it will be back. I believe it will be a part of expansion in the league and to help run the team and help guide the team as they come back into the league. I would absolutely love that. You know, when I retire, obviously, that's a dream come true. That's probably one of the only things that I would really lock in like I would, you know, like I was playing again. You know, it would feel close to that. And I know that you could truly walk in to a franchise. And I bet you our good friend Bob Myers would attest because he's had countless hours of conversations with you about basketball. I started, I mean, I always enjoy watching other players, even in high school. I always follow what I liked and players in my class and players that were coming out of high school after me. I always kept my eye on them. But I think once I got to OKC and me and Troy Weaver, who's the GM of Detroit now, we started having these little conversations just about players in college, in high school, what he's seen out of players. And we would have these conversations periodically. And I was just always interested in those. So every chance I get to bring him to the side and just talk about a game or a player, I would do it. And that's just started to build up my like eye for the game. You know, the different things I started to watch, the details that I started to figure, you know, watching throughout a game. And then each team I went to, I built that relationship with every GM, Bob Myers, with Sean Martz, with Josh Botterstein, James Jones right now. Like we just talk ball. And I think having that conversation, those conversations over the last 15 years has helped shape my mind to understand what it takes to be a professional on top of my own experience as a professional. So I feel like, yeah, I can add value to any franchise just based off of my, you know, just learning over time, my experience as an individual player in this league as well. And just having the will to do something, you know. So it's always been fun evaluating and seeing where the game is going. There's a lot of things that you and I have talked about that you could do, would do, have the opportunity to do. Have you started even thinking about that or do you still feel like, you know, you're young KD that's just playing ball? Yeah, I still feel like I'm that kid that's still hoping. But it's almost impossible not to think about it. And I could feel my mind drifting towards there when I see somebody my age going to transition out of the game and start doing something that I wouldn't mind doing when I'm playing, when I'm done playing. Like be a GM or do what Grant Hill's doing and run Team USA or become an owner of a franchise or just run the boardroom when I'm done, you know. So I get inspired by seeing people do those things all the time. But it's also a part of me that kind of snaps out of it and say, yo, I'm still in the grind with the youngsters still playing the game. But I'm at a point at being 35 and hearing it every day from my peers and from people around the game, being 17 years in, it's hard not to think about it. But I feel like being in the league and understanding and being this player that I am at this point in the league, it's preparing me mentally to be ready to take on different roles, you know. And I think that's just the core of the game is being disciplined, you know, being consistent every single day, working well with others, working towards a common goal. And I think those traits can transfer over, you know, to anything if I put my mind into it.