1988–present
Kevin Durant News: Basketball Star Traded to Houston Rockets
Kevin Durant is returning to the Lone Star State. Almost two decades after playing collegiately at the University of Texas, the 36-year-old NBA star is joining the Houston Rockets in a blockbuster trade.
ESPN first reported the deal, which sends Durant from the Phoenix Suns to Houston in exchange for Dillon Brooks, Jaylen Green, and six total draft picks. The four-time NBA scoring champ averaged 26.6 points per game this past season, giving Houston an elite scoring threat as it looks to unseat the Oklahoma City Thunder from atop the Western Conference.
The Rockets will be Durant’s fifth NBA franchise and fourth in the last six years. His original team Oklahoma City, which drafted Durant second overall in 2007 when the franchise was still based in Seattle, won the NBA Finals on June 22 with a Game 7 win over the Indiana Pacers. Now, Durant will be one of the Thunder’s biggest rivals.
Who Is Kevin Durant?
Basketball star Kevin Durant is one of the greatest scorers in NBA history and a 15-time All-Star as well as a four-time Olympic gold medalist with Team USA. A high school star who played one season at the University of Texas, Durant was chosen second overall in the 2007 NBA draft by the Seattle SuperSonics. He became a four-time scoring champion for the organization, which relocated to become the Oklahoma City Thunder after his Rookie of the Year campaign. In 2014, Durant was voted league MVP. He went on to lead the Golden State Warriors to back-to-back NBA championships and has since played for the Brooklyn Nets and Phoenix Suns. In June 2025, he was traded to the Houston Rockets.
Quick Facts
FULL NAME: Kevin Wayne Durant
BORN: September 29, 1988
BIRTHPLACE: Suitland, Maryland
ASTROLOGICAL SIGN: Libra
HEIGHT: 6 ft. 11 in.
Early Life
Kevin Wayne Durant was born just outside of the nation’s capital in Suitland, Maryland, on September 29, 1988. He is the second son of Wanda Durant and Wayne Pratt, who left the family when Kevin was young. Wayne later had two more children, daughter Brianna and son Rayvonne, who are Kevin’s half-siblings.
Wanda raised Kevin and his older brother, Tony, with help from their grandmother Barbara. She was a strong influence, telling Kevin that his height was a blessing even though schoolmates teased him for always being the tallest in the class. Both boys grew up loving sports, and Kevin eventually followed Tony’s footsteps to play college basketball.
Kevin’s success started with the PG Jaguars, an Amateur Athletic Union youth basketball team in Prince George’s County, Maryland. The team won two national championships during his tenure. To this day, Kevin wears a No. 35 jersey in honor of Charles Craig, his AAU coach and childhood mentor, who died at the age of 35.
During high school, Kevin grew 7 inches, nearly to his current height of 6 feet, 11 inches. At this time, he played for the National Christian Academy and Montrose Christian School, both in Maryland, and for basketball powerhouse Oak Hill Academy, located in Virginia. After his senior year, he was named to Parade magazine’s “First Team” list and to USA Today’s “First Team All-American” list as he captured attention from major college basketball recruiters nationwide.
Basketball Career: College and NBA
Durant received offers from top Division I colleges. A friend, point guard Ty Lawson, prompted Durant to join him at the University of North Carolina, but Durant instead signed with the University of Texas in Austin. Russell Springman, a Longhorns assistant and Maryland native, had been in touch with Durant since his freshman year of high school.
As a Longhorn, Durant started every game during his freshman year of college, averaging 25.8 points per game (first in the Big 12, fourth in the nation) and 11 rebounds per game in 35 games. He scored 20-plus points 30 times and put up 30-plus points 11 times. He was named the Big 12 Tournament’s MVP after setting a tournament record of 92 points and leading Texas to the second round of the NCAA men’s basketball tournament, where the team lost to the University of Southern California.
At the conclusion of the season, Durant received the Oscar Robertson and the Adolph F. Rupp awards as the most outstanding player. He was the first freshman to win both honors and had his sights set on professional ball.
NBA Draft and Oklahoma City Thunder Star
After just one year of college basketball, Durant declared himself eligible for the 2007 NBA draft. That June, the Seattle SuperSonics chose him as the second overall pick. Around that same time, the rookie signed a major endorsement deal with Nike that was only topped by LeBron James’ contract with the company.
Living up to the expectations, the gangly forward averaged more than 20 points per game in his first season, earning the NBA’s Rookie of the Year Award. The Sonics then relocated the organization to become the Oklahoma City Thunder, and Durant emerged as the face of the franchise in its new home, earning his first All-Star selection in 2010. He also claimed the first of three consecutive NBA scoring titles that year before adding another in his MVP season of 2013–14.
Durant enjoyed team success with the up-and-coming Thunder, pairing with explosive point guard Russell Westbrook and James Harden to reach the NBA Finals in 2012. In 2016, Oklahoma City fell just short of another finals appearance with a tough seven-game loss to the Golden State Warriors.
NBA Champion with the Golden State Warriors
On July 4, 2016, Durant made big waves in the NBA when he announced he had agreed to sign with the Golden State Warriors. “The primary mandate I had for myself in making this decision was to have it based on the potential for my growth as a player—as that has always steered me in the right direction,” Durant wrote in a post on The Players’ Tribune. “But I am also at a point in my life where it is of equal importance to find an opportunity that encourages my evolution as a man: moving out of my comfort zone to a new city and community which offers the greatest potential for my contribution and personal growth.”
Durant took a lot of heat for the decision, with critics calling him “soft” for joining an already loaded team, but it proved to be a winning move. In June 2017, he led the Warriors to victory over LeBron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers in the NBA Finals by scoring 39 points in the Game 5 clincher to cement Golden State’s second championship in three years. Durant averaged 35.2 points, 8.4 rebounds, and 5.4 assists throughout the series, earning the Finals MVP award for his performance. “I knew at some point in my life it would come together for me. I just had to keep grinding,” he told the New York Daily News. “I’m at a loss for words.”
The following year, Durant showed his leadership when his celebrated teammate, two-time MVP Stephen Curry, suffered an MCL sprain late in the season. Durant carried his team through the early rounds of the playoffs, and with Curry back to full strength, the Warriors swept the Cavaliers in their finals rematch. Durant then claimed his second straight Finals MVP award.
The 2018–19 season proved to be the most turbulent one of Durant’s tenure with Golden State. In November, an in-game argument between Durant and forward Draymond Green carried into the locker room afterward, and the team seemingly lacked the killer focus displayed in previous seasons. The Warriors still managed to claim the Western Conference with 57 wins, and they held off the dangerous Houston Rockets in the conference semifinals despite losing Durant to a strained calf.
Durant attempted to return in the 2019 NBA Finals but limped off the court with a ruptured Achilles tendon in the second quarter of Game 5. The Warriors ultimately lost to the Toronto Raptors, and Durant missed the entire 2019–20 NBA season as he recovered from his Achilles injury.
Trades to the Brooklyn Nets, Phoenix Suns, and Houston Rockets
At the beginning of the 2019 free agency period, news broke that the star forward agreed to a four-year deal with the Brooklyn Nets. In March 2020, shortly after the NBA suspended its season due to the coronavirus pandemic, Durant revealed he had tested positive for COVID-19.
Durant returned the following season and regained his all-star form, averaging 26.9 points in 35 games for Brooklyn. Durant was an all-star again in 2021–22, but Brooklyn was swept in the first round of the playoffs.
In February 2023, Brooklyn sent Durant to the Phoenix Suns as part of a four-team trade, but he was limited by injuries and appeared in only eight games the rest of that season.
Durant was on the move again in June 2025, as Phoenix agreed to trade the forward to the Houston Rockets for a package involving two players and six draft picks. He is expected to suit up for his new team come the 2025–26 preseason in the fall.
Olympics and International Play
Durant has also played internationally and was named 2010 FIBA World Championship MVP by the International Basketball Federation. He was chosen for the U.S. basketball team at the 2012 Olympic Games in London, where the Americans took home the gold medal. Durant returned for the 2016 Summer Games in Brazil and was named the co-USA Basketball Male Athlete of the Year (with Carmelo Anthony) after leading the team to gold once again.
Durant has since won gold with Team USA at the 2020 and 2024 Summer Games, making him the first men’s basketball athlete to win four Olympic championships. At the most recent competition in Paris, he passed Lisa Leslie as the all-time Team USA scorer across men’s and women’s Olympic play.
Career Stats
Durant is one of only eight NBA players to record more than 30,000 career points in the regular season and ranks second among active players behind LeBron James. Durant has racked up his points in a variety of ways, ranking eighth in free throws made (7,296) and 14th in 3-point field goals (2,191).
Here is a rundown of Durant’s career totals for the regular season and accolades, according to NBA.com and Basketball Reference as of June 24, 2o25:
NBA Totals
- Games: 1,123
- Minutes played: 41,237
- Points: 30,571
- Points per game: 27.2
- Assists: 4,908
- Rebounds: 7,828
- Blocks: 1,273
- NBA Championships: 2 (2017 and 2018)
- League MVP awards: 1 (2014)
- All-star selections: 15
Olympic Totals
- Games: 28
- Points: 518 (U.S. Olympic record)
- Points per game: 18.5
- Assists: 85
- Rebounds: 137
- Blocks: 17
- Gold medals: 4 (men’s Olympic record)
Contract and Net Worth
Durant has one year remaining on his four-year contract worth $194.2 million that he signed in 2021 while a member of the Brooklyn Nets.
For his NBA career, Durant has earned more than $399 million in estimated playing salary over 17 years. Because of this, Celebrity Net Worth estimates his total fortune at around $300 million.
Off the court, he has been in partnership with Nike since the beginning of his pro career. In 2007, Durant signed a $60 million, seven-year endorsement deal with the athletic apparel giant. He re-upped with Nike in 2014, then in 2023, Durant joined LeBron James and Michael Jordan as the third player to sign a lifetime contract with the company. Durant earned as much as $26 million annually through the deal in previous years. Through the partnership, Nike has released more than a dozen pairs of “KD” shoes with Durant.
Personal Life and More
Durant has never married and has no children. He was previously engaged to WNBA player and coach Monica Wright in 2013, but the couple broke up soon after.
Like a number of other athletes, Durant forayed into acting with the 2012 movie Thunderstruck. He played himself in the family-friendly comedy about a teenager who magically inherits the forward’s talent through a signed basketball.
Durant’s life and career were chronicled in the 2019 biography KD: Kevin Durant’s Relentless Pursuit to Be the Greatest by Marcus Thompson.
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