basketball stars picture: Kevin Durant

This morning I read a great article on Kevin Durant from David Moore of the Boston Herald. In it I found 5 lessons that Kevin Durant teaches players, especially younger players.

1. Kevin understands his stardom is the direct result of being apart of a team that has high character players. Kevin Durant on being named All-NBA, "You need a good group of guys to make a good team. If you aren’t on a good team, no matter how well you play, you’re not going to be All-NBA."

2. Kevin understands his skill set and uses it in a way that benefits the team, not self. Scott Brooks shares this about Kevin, "I’ve never been around a player like Kevin before at his age. It usually takes you six to seven years to figure out what you do well and how it blends into the team. "But Kevin, at 22, has figured that out. I thought he figured it out last year. He gets it. He understands that it’s about the team. His basketball IQ is all about how we can get better. He understands if we get better as a team, we all are rewarded."

3. Kevin understands that being the star doesn't excuse himself from being held accountable. Scott Brooks on coaching Kevin hard, "You have to have your best player doing the little things. We want to be a championship team. We know it’s going to take a lot of work. We don’t know how close we are, but we know if you don’t demand that all your players do the little things, you’re never going to get the big thing."

4. Kevin understands that he can learn from those he competes against. David Moore states in his article, Durant has studied film of the Mavericks forward [Nowitzki] in the off-season to incorporate some of what Nowitzki does into his game. Kevin says, "I watch how he gets to his spots and how he shoots."

5. Kevin understand that preparation provides peace and success on and off the court. Scott Brooks, "Kevin is very confident, very calm and really stays in the moment. He has this demeanor on the floor and off the floor that you know everything is going to work out just fine. It’s all because of the work he put in to prepare for the moment that allows him to have success."

George Karl gives his observation of Kevin Durant's leadership style in article written by John Rhode with the NewsOK. Here is what Karl said:

“He has a quiet leadership to him,” Karl said of Durant. “I like that. I think 90 percent of leadership is approach and attitude. It’s what you do, not what you say. I think it’s too early to give that tag to him, but I think he’s going to get there. I would bet on him getting there very quickly. I just hope it isn’t this year.

“I think natural leadership is better than learned leadership, but I think you can do a little bit of both. I think we all have met people and walked into rooms where you kind of already know by their presence who the leader of that room is, and I like those guys. Chauncey (Billups) has it. There’s a dignity and humility in the same type of sentence.