Early Life and High School Career
Durant was born in Washington, D.C. on September 29, 1988, one of four children of Wanda and Wayne Pratt. Durant has one sister, Brianna, and two brothers, Tony, and Rayvonne. Durant was raised by his parents and his grandmother, Barbara Davis. During his childhood, Durant and Michael Beasley grew up together, and had a close friendship. The two remain friends to this day.
A basketball player from his earliest days, Durant played for a successful Amateur Athletic Union (AAU) youth basketball team, the PG Jaguars, based in Prince George's County, Maryland. The Jaguars won multiple national championships with Durant and fellow future blue chip recruits Michael Beasley and Chris Braswell. Durant wore, and continues to wear, the number 35 jersey in honor of his childhood mentor and Amateur Athletic Union coach, Charles Craig, who was murdered at the age of 35.
Durant later moved on to play AAU basketball with fellow McDonald's All-American Ty Lawson of the Denver Nuggets, for the D.C. Blue Devils. After spending two years at National Christian Academy, and one year at Oak Hill Academy, Durant grew five inches and was 6'7" when he started at Montrose Christian School in Rockville, Maryland for his senior year, during which he grew two more inches. At Montrose, Durant led the team in scoring and steals and was named the Washington Post All Met Basketball Player of the Year. During his time at Montrose, he played in The Les Schwab Invitational, a nationally drawing invitational basketball tournament in Oregon State. Durant also played with current New Orleans Hornets point guard Greivis Vasquez while at Montrose. Vetter described Durant as a hard working player, complete with size, and incredible skills in shooting, ball handling, defense, and even some post up moves. Durant also was named a McDonald's All American and named co-MVP of the 2006 McDonald's All American game along with Chase Budinger. Behind Greg Oden, Durant was widely regarded as the second-best high school prospect.
Read more about this topic: Kevin Durant
Famous quotes containing the words early life, early, life, high, school and/or career:
“... goodness is of a modest nature, easily discouraged, and when much elbowed in early life by unabashed vices, is apt to retire into extreme privacy, so that it is more easily believed in by those who construct a selfish old gentleman theoretically, than by those who form the narrower judgments based on his personal acquaintance.”
—George Eliot [Mary Ann (or Marian)
“But she is early up and out,
To trim the year or strip its bones;”
—Edna St. Vincent Millay (1892–1950)
“Tomorrow in the offices the year on the stamps will be altered;
Tomorrow new diaries consulted, new calendars stand;
With such small adjustments life will again move forward
Implicating us all; and the voice of the living be heard:
“It is to us that you should turn your straying attention;
Us who need you, and are affected by your fortune;
Us you should love and to whom you should give your word.””
—Philip Larkin (1922–1986)
“She stood breast high amid the corn,
Clasp’d by the golden light of morn,”
—Thomas Hood (1799–1845)
“[How] the young . . . can grow from the primitive to the civilized, from emotional anarchy to the disciplined freedom of maturity without losing the joy of spontaneity and the peace of self-honesty is a problem of education that no school and no culture have ever solved.”
—Leontine Young (20th century)
“In time your relatives will come to accept the idea that a career is as important to you as your family. Of course, in time the polar ice cap will melt.”
—Barbara Dale (b. 1940)