Kevin Durant exclusive interview after winning Western Conference Player of the Week

Kevin Durant exclusive interview after winning Western Conference Player of the Week

Pleasure and an honor to welcome on to the burns and gambo show here on Arizona Sports 43 points last night an amazing game against the Chicago Bulls Kevin Durant joins us here on the Burns in gambo show Kevin I’m Dave this is gambo thanks for coming on today we really

Appreciate it what up fellas how y’all doing man good KD hey let me first say what a privilege it is to watch you play this game and I’ve been around for 57 years Bernard King was my favorite player as a kid growing up but it it’s

Beyond special to watch you I I can count on one hand the number of the number of players that play at the level you’ve played at you’re truly one of the greatest that have ever played this game and it’s fun to watch you play Man the Bernard King reference man

D taking them back with that one I appreciate that man thanks a lot me a lot coming from yall thank you thank you hey uh I want to go back to the Dallas game on Christmas Day because I I heard you last night after the game talking

About well 25 and 18 you guys after on Christmas Day after you lost to Dallas you guys had a 14 and 15 record you’ve completely turned around the season uh in a month how have you done it what has been the key reasons why you’ve been

Able to turn this season around in such a short amount of time uh I think we got back healthy I think we um understand more of uh our schemes on both ends just getting comfortable one one another I think that trial in there helps we become a better

Team you know so we took some losses watching fil learn from it you know start tur our season around I think that’s just the nature of the league a lot of teams have been you know have as and flow and struggle throughout the league but they’ll figured it out

And I feel like you know this is our time to start figuring it out right around Christmas I know Chris Paul when he got here he said what interested him with the Suns was in the bubble he noticed the Suns that year in the bubble they didn’t make the playoffs but they

Went 80 and he he said that caught my attention at what point in your career did this Phoenix Suns team catch your attention where you said hey this is a team to watch out for and this is a team that I might want to play for one

Day yeah right around that time I mean as book started to grow as a player I start to see you know the type of players they were drafting over here and I always love Phoenix as a city love playing here so it just kind of aligned

At the right time for me and you know we got you know had a book here and when I got here CP da all those guys on kind of like the same time line I was on so it made sense and and I feel like this year

Is kind of the same thing with Brad and and nurk and Grayson I think we’re all on the same timeline so it it fits well to me and just happy I’m here Kevin Durant Our Guest here on the burns and gambo show patience was the word that

Was getting thrown around a lot by the fans by the media by us we were talking about it it was hard for a lot of fans to have the patience that everything was going to work out was it hard or was it easy for you guys in the locker room to

Have patience and faith to know that this thing was going to work out I mean we had no other choice you know but you because we had to get up come to work regardless and we just kept grinding and figured you know trying to figure stuff

Out on the Fly and I think um we all been a part of teams like that where you got guys in and out the line up and you’re trying to figure out your identity with a new coach new system you know so we we we kind we’re Pros we

Understand what the process is like and but we understand we got a big microscope on us as well so many people expecting us um to play well and get it pretty soon pretty quickly so but we understand what the business is like and just try to stay PTI

And keep grinding and get healthy that was the main thing in in real time Deon Booker goes crazy in the first half against the Pelicans Bradley Beal finishes that great that game great against the Pacers you get just smoking hot yesterday against the Chicago BS in

Real time among Pros like you guys is it is it easy or is it challenging to understand that kind of chemistry of hey this guy’s hot you go you shoot right like I remember watching you against the Pelicans tell him book you just shoot you keep on going in the midst of

Something like that how easy is it or is it a challenge to kind of figure out who’s going to get their touches and win and all that stuff it’s pretty easy and I think it’s it’s easier to to to figure it out once you get stops on the

Defensive side you don’t always got to play against a set defense or call a play and I think all three of us are good at playing random basketball and transition um after a stop you know so we had a lot of stops that New Orleans

Game and uh book got it going the first quarter so like you know just let’s keep when we see something that works we try to keep going to it and you know and same thing with Brad and the LA and the fourth quarter last game you know so we

Try to see some stuff and try to uh you know capitalize on it as best we can but it all STS from us getting stops we do that we you know the ball to find the best players you didn’t have to do it last night because Drew Eubanks came in

And gave you a big LIF but you’ve had to play a little small ball five recently you’ve done it at other times in your career it’s worked really well for this team tell me tell me do you like playing the small ball five and that lineup and why is it so

Successful yeah I like everything about basketball you you know you can put me anywhere and I can try to figure it out as best I can I enjoy it and I just try to you I know that um that could give us so much space with me at the five and

With four Shooters around so you know and usually it make a coach Happ and make an adjustment on play his best defenders you know in the game and not his big man so you know I think coach is using that lineup just to throw the other team off for a split second and

Then and then we’ll you know kind of re they make them readjust and then we might go back to our original game plan who knows but just having different attacks I think makes us unpredictable and that makes a good team we we had Eric Gordon on a week ago and he had

Suggested that lineup could work against anybody at any time in the NBA regardless of who was playing the five do you feel the same way about that small ball lineup uh uh it depends depends what the center is man but I mean we can roll that out there and see what happens I

Don’t mind throwing it out there against anybody and seeing what happens I’m confident in the group and confident in coach that he gonna put us all in the best positions you guys get Dallas tomorrow it’s been less than a year since uh the partnership with Kyrie

Broke up and uh you went your way and he went his way what does this game mean to you is it Revenge from the Christmas Day game against Dallas the partnership with Kyrie for those years what does this game mean to you yeah I’m playoff story lines man just another game that we

Going to use to get better and keep growing we know we’re trying to get to at the end of the season so all that stuff is for the outside the fans enjoy the game hopefully they watching watch with some enthusiasm but for me as a

Player it’s just we got we we got some solid momentum right now let’s see how we can build on it I always cringe when people talk about your legacy it’s defined you’re one of the truly five greatest players that has ever played this game You’ve Won champion ships MVP

Awards but I do want to ask you about what a championship in Phoenix would mean to you if you were able to bring this city their first ever Championship what would it mean to you personally and for your legacy I don’t even look at it that way I’d be happy to experience something

With these group of guys in this city and and and we’ll celebrate that together if it ever happens but it’s not about me at the end of the day it’s about all of us and everybody plays a part from the fans to Media to the players to the executives you know so

It’s bigger than just me so I’m not really thinking about what it mean for whatever legacy mean I mean I guess that’s what people say about me when I’m done playing like I can’t really concern myself with that I meant to just like enjoying the experience and if I get an

Opportunity to go through that experience with this group and with this city I’ll be more than grateful and and and happy that I was able to do it but regardless I’m G come to work every day and put my best up forward for the city and my teammates you’ve had a chance now

To play with Devin for almost a year Bradley is still kind of relatively new to the mix what sort of different Dynamic does he bring on and off the floor in terms of what he brings to the locker room what he brings on the court

How how much has he Chang things for you guys oh Bradley I’m sorry I hear what you said yeah Bradley talking about Beal yeah oh yeah just some high IQ player that can very selfless that can do pretty much everything out there on the floor guard pass score for everywhere

You know so you add that to your group uh it just makes takes you to another level you know so eases everybody mind when he out there man we know we can throw him the ball and we get good offense uh if we stagnant you know know

He can guard so it’s just it’s great having somebody that can that’s that’s well-rounded as a player it helps everybody else on the team look we hear how how many great things you do in that locker room how much you care about winning in the organization and this you

Know you’ve played for five different organizations this one the commitment to win the luxury tax going beyond the April you know as a player what what does that mean when you’ve got that commitment to win from the top I mean everybody’s on the same page that’s the beauty of the league we all

Understand what the goal is we all trying to help each other and Empower each other be the best version of ourselves whatever whatever that takes us that takes us you know so we don’t we don’t talk about championships every day we talk about the process of and what it

Takes to be great every day you know so if everybody’s on that page and you know I can accept whatever happens after that KD congratulations on all the success that you had that game last night was unbelievable and just a joy to watch we really appreciate you coming on for a

Few best of luck against Dallas and on this road trip okay big fan guys love what y’all doing thank you thank you KD appreciate that that’s Kevin Durant joining us here on the Burns & gambo show in Arizona Sports thanks for watching Burns & gambo click to see more

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Kevin Durant exclusive interview after winning Western Conference Player of the Week.

Video/Photo: Jeremy Schnell/Arizona Sports and Phoenix Suns/NBA

Photo: Chris Coduto/Getty Images

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