Kevin Durant: 'My favorite NBA era was with OKC' / News - Basketnews.com

Current Phoenix Suns player and superstar Kevin Durant reflected on his time in the Oklahoma City Thunder and cherished it as the best of his career so far.

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Suffice it to say, Kevin Durant has had a quite colorful NBA career. Currently playing for the Phoenix Suns, the superstar arguably had his best seasons with the Oklahoma City Thunder.

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In remarks to Clemente Almanza, Durant positively reminisced his years in Oklahoma, stating that those seasons were his favorites.

"It has to be the OKC time period because it was like the entry point into all of this. That's like the foundation of everything," Durant said.

"We was young and we was playing against dynasties. We was competing against the [Los Angeles] Lakers with Kobe [Bryant] when they won it back-to-back. Dallas [Mavericks] when they won the championship. Miami [Heat] with LeBron [James] and D-Wade [Dwyane Wade], and so that was the start of it all..."

I think coming in early, all of us, James [Harden], me, Russ [Russell Westbrook], we was all 22, 23. Getting thrown into the fire like that probably was the best part."

For Durant, what is also an important factor in his cherishing of his OKC years was the team's relative youth, which made it very popular among fans then, who were children when the OKC was rebuilding at that time.

"I realized when I got older that guys in their 30s now [are] like 'Man, we grew up watching you do that in your 20s' or like 'Man when I was a kid, we was watching you guys.' It's crazy," the forward said. "A lot of young people gravitate towards that team because we was all young, so we was their team coming up."

We all came in consecutive years. It was me, Russ, then James and Serge [Ibaka] and then we just kept building from there," Durant talked about the team's rebuilding. "That part probably was the most fun I had in the league. Everything else was definitely cool, but that was my first time experiencing something was with that [team]," he said.

The superstar finally reflected on his mental development over the years and how his seasons with the OKC helped him out in that regard.

"I just think that experience of winning and losing, having different teammates, coaches, that just gave me more experience and more knowledge about the league, the business, the game itself..." Durant said.

"I've been it for 17 years now. So, that was 9 years of my career that we experienced a lot. Going to the finals, winning every year... I was experiencing All-Star games, All-NBAs," he concluded.

With the Oklahoma City Thunder, Durant won the NBA championship twice (2017 and 2018, was named the Finals MVP in both years and became the NBA's regular season MVP in 2014.

Durant also received countless All-Star and First Team citations during his years with the OKC. He was also the league's top scorer in 4 seasons.

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