After Monday’s loss, Durant saw that his family was there but just didn’t want to hear what anyone had to say. His silent stroll out of the arena was predictable given how much he internalizes each loss and overanalyzes every mistake. When they all gathered at his home later, Durant said he managed to crack a smile but it didn’t help him put the devastation behind him.
“Words can’t say how much I appreciate their support. But that’s probably one out of 200 times I haven’t really talked to them that much after a game,” he said. “They understand. But if they wasn’t there [Monday] night, I don’t know what I would’ve done with myself. It made it a little easier for me. Got home, laughed a little bit, but once you’re by yourself, you think about it.”
‘It’s not all, “Aw, baby” ’
Late in Monday’s game, Mavericks reserve center Brendan Haywood shoved Durant to the ground rather than have Durant throw down a thunderous dunk on him, as he did earlier in the series. When she saw Durant landing hard on his backside, Davis said of her reaction: “Not good. Not good.”
“That’s the part I enjoy about the game, because you’ve got to find out what that person is made of, after that hard foul. If that’s going to deter you from carrying on, or make you push forward,” Wayne Pratt said. “Most of the time, he’s going to push forward.”
Wanda Pratt managed to keep it all in perspective with the understanding that her son is a 22-year-old who doesn’t have everything figured out yet.
“I believe Kevin is going to be a great player,” she said this week. “It was really tough for me to watch Kevin get so frustrated, but we’ve got to keep encouraging him. Sometimes, you’re going to have bumps in the road and you’ve got to adjust. That’s how I talk to him. It’s not all, ‘Aw, baby.’ Sometimes, he needs that, but right now, he doesn’t need that. Sometimes, you just need to get up.”
Durant agreed that it is part of the process.
“It’s how you bounce back and how you get through adversity that builds you up,” Durant said. “If it was easy, you’d see a lot more people doing it. You really hate these type of times, but you’ve got to really enjoy them, because once you get there, it’s going to be even sweeter. It’s kind of bittersweet, I guess.”
And once he gets there, his family will be with him. “If Kevin worked at the post office, we’d still be supportive of him. We’ll always be together,” Wanda Pratt said. “This is what family does. It doesn’t matter what profession Kevin would’ve gone into. We will always be family. And we will always support one another. It just happens to be on this grand stage, so the support has always been there.”
Loading...
Comments