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NBA FINALS: HEAT v THUNDER


June 11, 2012


Kevin Durant


OKLAHOMA CITY, OKLAHOMA: Practice Day

Q.  The other night LeBron talked about when you guys were working out in Akron in the off season together.  Can you talk about how that came about and what you got from that?
KEVIN DURANT:  Well, you know, just two guys wanted to get better, and that's what we did.  Just workouts.

Q.  He invited you?
KEVIN DURANT:  Yeah, he invited me to come out there and have a chance to work out with one of the top players.  It's something you've got to take advantage of.  I always want to get better no matter what, and that's what we did.

Q.  I understand that when players come to OKC, they've first got to go to the Memorial before they can take the court.  Talk about what your experience was there.  Obviously you were very young when it happened, but what it means to you and the community.
KEVIN DURANT:  It means a lot.  It's something that was tough for the city when it happened.  Being somewhere, being in a community where you're going to live here for a while, we want to know the history, everything that went down here in Oklahoma and how they moved past it.  You can tell by what happened in those events that the city got closer and closer, and you can tell just by landing here in Oklahoma City, just meeting people in the airport, that this city is a tight‑knit family.  With us coming here, it just made it even closer.  It's just a blessing to be a part of a great city even though they went through a tough tragedy.

Q.  Back to those workouts in Akron in the summer, LeBron said he envisioned you guys being at this point.  Did you envision the same thing or did you talk about that much?
KEVIN DURANT:  No, uh‑uh.  Of course they had one of the best teams in the league this year, so it was easy for people to say that we was going to meet in The Finals.  I was always taking it a day at a time and whatever happens, happens.  Everybody is going to make the most out of the match‑up or me versus LeBron, but it's the Thunder versus the Heat.  One guy versus another guy, it's not going to be a one‑on‑one match‑up to win the series, it's going to be all about the team.  It's going to be fun.

Q.  When you face them, especially on this stage, do you look at it more as a rivalry or a friendship?
KEVIN DURANT:  First, all I think about is the Thunder versus the Heat, that's all.  I know everybody in here is worried about the one‑on‑one match‑up, but I can't really control that.  All I can control is how hard I play and how we play as a team.

Q.  Despite what you just said, do you sense the media fascination with you versus LeBron and fans' interest in that match‑up, as well?
KEVIN DURANT:  Yeah, I mean, that's a sexier match‑up, I guess.  But I don't read newspapers, I don't get on Twitter anymore, I just focus on what I need to do and what we need to do as a team.  To be honest, really, outside of me knowing what you guys are thinking, that's all I've heard about the match‑up is from you guys.

Q.  You just mentioned kind of focusing on what you guys need to do.  What was practice like today and where does you guys' focus lie?
KEVIN DURANT:  It was a good practice.  The last few days have been good for us.  You know, we've just got to be ready to face a really good team, well coached team.  They play hard like us, athletic.  But everybody was focused and locked in.  We know we have a really good opportunity, and we've got to go take it.  We've got to try to take it.  Like I said, it's not going to be easy, and that's the fun part about it.

Q.  You come here with one of the younger starting lineups in NBA Finals history.  Do you buy at all into the fact that Finals experience is necessary at this stage, or have you played enough big games at this point of your career?
KEVIN DURANT:  Yeah, we've played a lot of big games.  Of course everybody is going to say it's not our time, we're too young, it's going to happen eventually, but that's not the approach we ever want to take with anything.  I learned that when I was a kid.  My mom always told me when I was going against older guys don't let your age be the reason why you don't succeed.  I just want to, you know, like I said, take advantage of it.  And we've played in a lot of games.  We were too young to beat the Spurs, a great team, and we came out and accomplished that.  We were too young to beat the Lakers, and we accomplished that, as well.
We just want to keep thinking that we can do it and also knowing that it's going to be a tough road, and we've got to be focused.

Q.  What are the major challenges that you see in dealing with LeBron, guarding him especially?
KEVIN DURANT:  He can score at will, he's strong, he can shoot it.  But it's got to be a team effort.  I've got to play my hardest every possession, no possessions off.  He's really good in transition, when you turn the ball over or for rebound, he is really good at getting to the rim.  I've just got to do my work early, and we'll see what happens.

Q.  Was there any Finals match‑up in the past that you watched?  Obviously you don't go back so far, but one that you really, really enjoyed, whether it's Shaq‑Iverson or the Celtics versus the Lakers?  Was there anyone that has stood out to you that was really enjoyable to watch?
KEVIN DURANT:  It was always‑‑ when I watch Finals, it was always guys like Robert Horry hitting big shots, Derek Fisher hitting big shots.  It was really one‑on‑one against any of those top players.  Guys off the bench came in and contributed, and that's what I remember.  I remember a team against a team.  It was never you just get a ball to your best players and have them go one‑on‑one.  It's rarely about that.
That's what I know about this game; it's a team game, and the best team is going to win.

Q.  But is there one that might stand out to you in history?
KEVIN DURANT:  No, I don't remember.

Q.  I just wanted to ask you about just how your past failures just‑‑ being on a losing team and then also last year losing the Western Conference Finals, how much that's fueled you to get to this point?
KEVIN DURANT:  It's tough going through those losing times my first few years, tough losing in the Playoffs to the Lakers and Dallas.  I just wanted to get better.  I knew as a team if we were going to continue to grow, I had to get better.  I just kept working out in the summer as hard as I could, and hopefully the day will come that I get an opportunity to bring home a championship.  That's what I'm just trying to do.  I'm trying to play as hard as I can, leave everything out on the floor, and live with the results.  You know, I'm going to try my hardest.

Q.  I know that you said the summer you worked out hard.  I know a lot of the games were for fun, for the fans.  How serious did you take those games, in particular the game at Morgan State where you and LeBron put on a show?
KEVIN DURANT:  Well, I took them very seriously.  You rarely get that opportunity to play against NBA players in the summertime.  I played in almost 20 of those games, and I was always just trying to work on stuff that I did when I was working out individually.  Everybody took those games serious.  Chris Paul was there, he took it serious, Melo, myself, Ty Lawson, we took it serious.  We wanted to go out there and improve.  It was a fun game.  That was a fun game, and it's something that I'm always going to remember.  That summer is something I'm always going to remember for the rest of my life.

Q.  George Karl said a lot during your series with them last year that a champion only materializes in the second or third rounds.  It looked like for you guys that moment might have been Game 3 against the Spurs.  Do you feel like there was a moment where things really just came together and clicked for you guys?
KEVIN DURANT:  I never really looked at it that way.  I just looked at it that we were down 2‑0, and we needed to win that game.  We came on and just played hard.  We played extremely hard.  We took it to another level as far as just playing as hard as we can.  Everybody on our team did that, and I think that's a level that we're going to need to play at for this series, as well.
You know, but I didn't think‑‑ I wouldn't say that it just clicked for it and we're going to win this and we're going to win that.  But it just‑‑ the series got better for us as the games went along, and we started to make adjustments, and we grew up a little bit.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports




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