Kevin Durant Interview: These Olympics aren’t a farewell tour | NBA Today

Kevin Durant Interview: These Olympics aren’t a farewell tour | NBA Today

Kevin Durant he’s a winner and he is out tonight against Canada with a c strain it’s kept him out the entirety of the national team’s training camp so far in Las Vegas tonight though marks the first of five friendlies for the US ahead of the Paris Olympics but let’s talk a little bit more about Katie he has a case hear me out to be referred to as the most decorative men’s Olympic player in United States history no one in the history of the US men’s Olympic play has more points than Durant he’s LED Team USA in scoring in all three Olympic Games he’s parti I ated in with all three leading to gold medals and recently he sat down with our Tim bontemps and talked about his expectations for this year’s Olympic Squad I’m not trying to make you feel old but you’ve also been around a minute so of LeBron so Steph you guys are all playing together here does it sort of feel like I don’t want to say necessarily last harah but like you know no no no I mean these guys are still playing at leite level you know like Bron could play four or five more it might be here in 28 in La you know you know Steph still playing great ball doing all right too you know so I don’t want to look at it that way I think we still got some good ball in the tank uh try to contribute and impact the game still I want to be just like a a farewell tour or like make it just about us three it’s about you know trying to win this fifth in a row is there any extra significance though to be doing it with those guys after all the stuff you guys have all collectively been through you yeah you could say that I mean yeah yeah you know there just nothing but respect for these guys and you’ve seen their careers for the last 15 20 years and you know so to finally be teammates and it’s not just them I feel that same way about ad like just admiring them for so long and now being able to be in the same locker room with him is pretty cool just to just to sit and observe what they do admiring them from afar now just to being around them every day and see how they approach life and the game of basketball is going to be cool the suns are just trying to keep the season alive Edwards and take over mod we reflect back on the season we just was inconsistent with our play and the style of play that we wanted I know you watch as much hope as anybody obviously the West is loaded a lot of stuff moving around I know you guys aren’t able to necessarily do a ton with the roster but so where do you see where you guys sit right now compared with everybody I like our team we got me Brad and book who can go off and do a lot of different things on the basketball court it starts with us I love what we are I felt like we gave away a lot of games last year and we won 49 of them but every team has gotten better I feel in the west and some teams in the east as well you know so it’s going to be a competitive league but I like who we are so the Suns they only have the 10th highest odds to win a title heading into the season that is the lowest for a Kevin Durant anchored team since his third season in the league when the Thunder went on to win 50 games so Zach it seems like as all these teams in the west your Oklahoma City Thunder are making all these these moves the Phoenix Suns are a little bit hamstrung here they can’t do anything with Bradley Bill’s contract he’s one of now two players in the NBA who has a no trade clause so do you think that the sun is already setting if you will on Phoenix’s window with KD Zac look I’m never going to count out a team with Kevin Durant and dein Booker Mike buen holer is a fresh voice Royce O’Neal’s back the mo is signing is a nice signing but this team is facing an uphill battle they just didn’t look right for really any stretch like season in terms of the chemistry on offense the fit on offense more time together for the Stars would help that hopefully they get that this year Bradley Beal hasn’t played 60 games or more since 2019 more than 60 games since 2019 so we’ll see Minnesota just bullied them in the first round physically overpowered them and I’m not sure they’ve done anything to address that to address the fact that they were kind of a shaky defensive team for the most part in the regular season but if they’re healthy and they’re together they have a chance to be anyone in a series and maybe win a round or two but it’s going to be an uphill battle that those odds I think correctly reflect where they are entering the season man time flies it was 10 months ago today that team Canada got their biggest win in program history defeating Team USA in the bronze medal game in the FBA World Cup but that American roster was not this American roster right it’s the Avengers have assembled LeBron James Steph Curry they will be rocking the red white and blue and then they helped recruit Joel embiid to join the squad team USA’s all-time leading scorer Kevin Durant is back for more the reigning NBA champ Jason Tatum is ready to go too so they look a little bit different for these Olympics so welcoming back here our Tim B Tim bonbs who is in Las Vegas Tim what should people expect tonight when they watch these I’ll put it in air quotes Avengers play against Team Canada well Malik I’m really excited to see these guys get in a full game on the court against one of the metal favorites in Paris in Team Canada should be really fun to watch and this is really our first opportunity to see what this group is going to look like we’ve seen little Snippets of scrimmages over the past few days but this is going to be a full 40-minute game against an elite team and we’ll find out say for example outside of Steph Curry LeBron James and Joel embiid the three guys that are locked into the starting lineup who are the two guys that will play next to them to start this game tonight against Canada Kevin Durant one of the possibilities to be in one of those spots he is injured he’s been dealing with this CF streen that’s kept him out of Camp he will not play tonight but could Jason Tatum be in one of those spots could Drew holiday or Anthony Edwards could Devin Booker it’ll be interesting to see how Steve cerr manages that and just the rotations in general in this game Steve cerr has so many options at his disposal for how he wants to put these guys together you could play virtually any way you want with this group that’s how much talent there is and how versatile it is and so that’s what I’m going to be watching for throughout this game how do the Team USA start to look against one of the teams they’re going to be competing for with medals in Paris and we’ll start to really get a sense of what Steve Kerr wants to do with this team as arguably the most talented team since the Dream Team takes its first onstage look tonight here in Vegas you’re going to have to start working we have the redeem team we have the dream team we’re going to have to start working on the nickname for this 2024 team Tim bonm thank you so very much and what’s interesting about this game right is remember when the US lost to Canada there was this whole discourse and discussion about okay watch out the rest of the world the talent is catching up here with the United States Ramona shelburn dressed appropriately for this discuss in the red here how important do you think it is Ramona for Team USA to come out make a statement tonight against Canada even though it’s a different roster I I think it’s hugely important because aot team canet is a lot of the reason why all these stars came out and said we need to play for Team USA this is why Steph Curry and LeBron and and Kevin Durant all these guys have said we can’t lose like this anymore on the world stage and we’ve heard this before with the redeem team but this is probably the most talented international team the US has had since the Dream Team and maybe even more talented that team so this is throwing Talent at the problem but let’s see if Talent is enough because Canada is a team that knows how to play together they knows the they know the FBA style they’ve been with they have chemistry this Team USA they’ve been together for a couple of days I’m sorry I was distracted because you’re trying to find a new name for this team I was thinking and I actually search what rhymes with dream and redeem is it like this team is very talented so they’re the extremely they’re the Extreme Team they’re the team that you can’t scheme the scheme team sorry yeah they’re kind of the monstar they are the monar but like we got to make it rhyme we got to make it rhyme so I kind of like Extreme Team because they’re extremely talented uh to me I don’t think they have much to prove other than them going out there and winning and also understanding that they have to build chemistry what makes Team USA so unique as someone who’s been in the pool is that you are typically assembled I know I just have to say it for context because I know you’re you are assembled and you have to play together in this Camp because especially in the NBA these guys typically don’t play together in the competitions leading up to it you have a mini training camp a mini boot camp and then you’re playing games and then your your games are up for medals so as talented as you are you still have to build the right chemistry you have to understand the principles the philosophies you have to know who gets the ball at this certain situation as much as you play against each other in the NBA you’re still learning each other as teammates so that is not necessarily so easy but they do have the talent to win work all that out already yeah it’ll be more competitive than we’ve ever seen before they can’t take that for granted they don’t have much to prove they just seem to go out there win but most importantly build chemistry Zach how important do you think that this just one game and and we’re talking about an exhibition game by the way how important do you think it is for them to set the tone here guess what if they lose tonight I am not going to care at all unless they lose by like 20 or 30 it’s an exhibition game this is the first step in a long long journey this is about okay let’s see how this lineup combination looks let’s see how that lineup combination looks let’s see how we can use Joel MB need on offense we going to post them up are we going to pick and pop how is that going to look yes they should beat Canada yes I expect them to beat Canada but this is step one we are all going to forget about this game real quickly No Matter How It Ends I’m just curious to see what Steve Curr Visions for this team what lineup combinations does he like and not like and how everybody fits together this is just the stage one of the journey let’s just sit back and enjoy it don’t fret just have some fun so yeah in all that not fretting and just having fun those two remaining starting lineup spots that Tim bonds was discussing who would you slot in there me yeah yes yes you well if you don’t say Anthony Edwards you’re gonna have a problem I mean but my start my starting five is is Steph Tatum Durant and beid let’s go he me and LeBron yeah and LeBron I mean look I think Anthony Edward got to go in there he’s the guy that’s been in that program he was the best player on Team USA last year he’s self-proclaimed I guess this year but I mean he’s the guy who’s earned it and I also think he’s the best defender on the team right now in that in that point of attack defense well and he did say that he knows that his defense that would be the calling card to get him a little bit more playing time I have found the name does that matter yes is it the meme team no America we’ve had the Dream Team we’ve had the redeemed team this is the Supreme Team there you go the Supreme oh she did it this a pretty welcome [Music]

NBA Today’s Malika Andrews, Ramona Shelburne, Chiney Ogwumike and Zach Lowe react to Tim Bontemps’ interview with Kevin Durant in Las Vegas and dive into the state of the Phoenix Suns. They also preview Team USA’s friendly against Canada as they prepare for the 2024 Olympics in Paris.

0:00 Intro
0:45 Kevin Durant convo
2:57 Has the Suns’ window closed?
4:12 Team USA vs. Canada Preview

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