The wide world of professional sports is riddled with so
many examples of unsportsmanlike braggadocio and trash-talking, that it’s
refreshing when an athlete makes
headlines by spouting not attitude, but gratitude.
Kevin Durant of the NBA’s Oklahoma City Thunder has certainly
earned the right to be big-headed. At only 25 he has won an NBA Most
Valuable Player Award, four NBA scoring titles, the NBA Rookie of the
Year Award, and an Olympic gold medal. He has been selected to
four All-NBA teams and five All-Star teams in his short
career.
But humility keeps him grounded. A couple of years ago,
Durant wrote about
that and his Christian faith:
In the Bible, (it says) the Lord
exalts humility and that’s one thing I try to be all the time. When I’m talking
in front of people or when people tell me I’m great, I (remind myself that I)
can always be better. Humility comes before honor. I always work on what I have
now. I have to be thankful to the Lord for the gifts He’s given me. My gift
back to Him is to always be humble and always work as hard as I can.
Durant has a tattoo on his wrist that says live for eternity. “God says that’s
where we’re all headed. And I wanna start living with that eternal perspective
on everything I do now.” That’s a pretty mature attitude for a rich-and-famous
25-year-old.
Philanthropist Durant is well-respected for giving back to
his community. He donated
one million dollars to the local Red Cross in the aftermath of a 2013 tornado
that tore across Oklahoma. He personally visited survivors and prompted Nike, the
NBA and the National Basketball Players Association each to match his
contribution.
Durant, who has been called
the nicest guy in the NBA, was awarded Most Valuable Player last week, and in an
extraordinarily touching and emotional acceptance speech, expressed his
heartfelt thanks to the friends and family members who made him what he is.
Tearfully, he thanked his two brother also for his support, and told his older brother
Tony that “you taught me to feel confident in myself, believe in myself, that I
can do it when I didn’t think I could do it.” He thanked him for “texting me
Bible verses every single day, telling me you love me every single day. That
builds me up and I thank you so much. I love you.”
Finally, he addressed his mother Wanda Pratt, sitting in the
front row. Sometimes called Durant’s secret weapon, Pratt and her husband
divorced shortly after Durant was born. “We were very young, immature,” she recalled.
“Really not understanding what being a family was. So we split up and I did the
best I could… I decided early on that my desires and wants and even needs came
second to what they needed and wanted. That was my mindset.”
She proceeded to live by that mindset, and Durant didn’t
take it for granted. He continued his speech:
I don’t think you know what you
did. You had my brother when you were 18 years old. Three years later I came
out. The odds were stacked against us. Single parent with two boys by the time
you were 21 years old.
Everybody told us we weren’t supposed to be here. We moved from apartment to apartment by ourselves. One of the best memories I have is when we moved into our first apartment. No bed, no furniture, and we just all sat in the living room and hugged each other because we thought we made it…
We weren’t supposed to be here. You made us believe. You kept us off the street, put clothes on our backs, food on the table. When you didn’t eat, you made sure we ate. You went to sleep hungry. You sacrificed for us. You’re the real MVP.
Everybody told us we weren’t supposed to be here. We moved from apartment to apartment by ourselves. One of the best memories I have is when we moved into our first apartment. No bed, no furniture, and we just all sat in the living room and hugged each other because we thought we made it…
We weren’t supposed to be here. You made us believe. You kept us off the street, put clothes on our backs, food on the table. When you didn’t eat, you made sure we ate. You went to sleep hungry. You sacrificed for us. You’re the real MVP.
At that, the audience present rose to give Durant’s mom a much-deserved
standing ovation, not because she had raised a superstar athlete, but because a
mother single-handedly committed herself to raising a tight-knit family of good
sons, keeping them out of trouble, and turning out a humble man who is unashamed
to publicly discuss his faith and to express his love and gratitude to her and
his brothers.
Earlier in that speech,
Kevin Durant had told his younger brother that he strove to set a great example
for him. It’s clear that, thanks to his mother, Durant in his short life is
already serving as an exceptional role model not only for his brother, but for
his teammates and fans – and that impact will go well beyond whatever successes
he has on the court.
(This article originally appeared here on Acculturated, 5/12/14)
