MIES (Switzerland) - The fans that have watched Kevin Durant become the USA national team's all-time leading scorer in his five title winning performances since 2010 have always appreciated his amazing talent.
After leading the USA to the top of the podium at the 2010 FIBA Basketball World Cup in Istanbul, Durant was named MVP of the event and he followed up that act with brilliant performances to help the Americans win gold medals at the London, Rio de Janeiro, Tokyo and Paris Olympics.
What viewers may not have known before watching Court of Gold on Netflix is Durant's overall connection to the sport. In fact Durant himself seemed to have had an epiphany in Paris, of what playing basketball had done for him in his life.
"When I looked in the crowd, it’s 27,000 people, from all walks of life, all different countries," he says, with his voice wavering. "Coming together, for basketball, man, it’s just like incredible to see that. So as much as I can bring us together that way, that’s what I'm trying to do."
It gets me emotional
Indeed, there were spectators from all over the world watching Durant enjoy one of his finest hours in Paris, where the USA had to pull out all stops to beat Serbia in the Semi-Finals and then France in the Gold Medal Game.
In his interview on Court of Gold, Durant then became overwhelmed with the magnitude of his experience in France and began to cry.
"I come from neighborhoods where people don’t even talk to each other," he said. "So much hate in the world, too. When you finally, when people get to start laughing and joking for the game of ball, it’s cool to me.
"It gets me emotional, dawg. It’s crazy to see people, someone say they traveled so long to come see their favorite player play in the Olympics.
"They spend their money, they bring their whole family, it’s just dope for me. The game has saved my life. It brought me and my family out of a lot of bulls***, so I’m just grateful for it."
Durant's mother, Wanda, was on hand for the Olympics and she also spoke in the Court of Gold series about her son.
"His level of commitment to this is practically unmatched," she said. "Life hasn’t been easy for us. Life hasn’t been easy for him on his journey. We were an African American family, ran by a single, uneducated female who started a family as a teenager.
"We weren’t supposed to make it. We were supposed to be statistics. And I was determined that that wouldn’t be the case for my son. And that garners a toughness."
Reflecting on Durant's upbringing, Wanda remembered her son's practices and training sessions.
I would always require him to do more
She says: "Kevin wanted to be a professional basketball player. I didn’t know what that looked like. And so I would always require him to do more, than even the coach who knew what the training looked like.
“We’d come to the hill, he would run up the hill. And coach would say, '50' and I’m like, 'Fifty?' Well, I’m gonna sit in my car, and I’m gonna read a book and I need you to do 150 or 200 and I’ll be in the car.
"And he would get mad. But I was doing what I thought was needed in the preparation. That’s what it was about for me.”
Durant is another great example of how a parent's commitment and insistence on hard work may not always be well received at the time, but it pays off in the end.
Wanda's son is a certainty to go into the FIBA Hall of Fame once he's done playing. He is second to none in the history of USA Olympic basketball, according to his national team coach, Steve Kerr.
The Olympic GOAT
"I think Kevin is the greatest men’s Olympic basketball player of all time," he says in Court of Gold. "It’s really, really fun to reconnect and coach Kevin again because he’s really easy to coach. He loves basketball. And he loves being a part of a team."
FIBA