--- title: NBA Finals 2017: Obama Congratulates Warriors' Kevin Durant description: Kevin Durant revealed that former president Barack Obama reached out to congratulate him on his NBA Championship win. canonical: https://time.com/4818612/obama-kevin-durant-on-nba-championship/ author: Cady Lang article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-06-14T20:36:25.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:44:30.320Z og:title: Here's What Obama Texted Kevin Durant After His Big NBA Win og:description: Here's what #44 had to say og:url: https://time.com/4818612/obama-kevin-durant-on-nba-championship/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltec2210d9bb60865a/6988d1a9bc6cfc192e3e1d63/kevin-durant-obama-text-nba-finals.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 2000 og:image:height: 1125 og:image:alt: 2017 NBA Finals - Game Five og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Here's What Obama Texted Kevin Durant After His Big NBA Win twitter:description: Here's what #44 had to say twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltec2210d9bb60865a/6988d1a9bc6cfc192e3e1d63/kevin-durant-obama-text-nba-finals.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Here's How Obama Casually Congratulated Kevin Durant After His First NBA Championship Win > Sponsored content. 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Every edition is assembled by TIME editors rather than generated automatically.  by [Cady Lang](https://time.com/author/cady-lang/)  ## Cady Lang Jun 14, 2017 8:36 PM UTC  OAKLAND, CA - JUNE 12: NBA Finals MVP Kevin Durant #35 of the Golden State Warriors speaks to the media after winning the NBA Championship in Game Five of the 2017 NBA Finals against the Cleveland Cavaliers on June 12, 2017 at ORACLE Arena in Oakland, California. NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by downloading and/or using this photograph, user is consenting to the terms and conditions of Getty Images License Agreement. Mandatory Copyright Notice: Copyright 2017 NBAE (Photo by Andrew D. Bernstein/NBAE via Getty Images) OAKLAND, CA - JUNE 12: NBA Finals MVP Kevin Durant #35 of the Golden State Warriors speaks to the media after winning the NBA Championship in Game Five of the 2017 NBA Finals against the Cleveland Cavaliers on June 12, 2017 at ORACLE Arena in Oakland, California. NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by downloading and/or using this photograph, user is consenting to the terms and conditions of Getty Images License Agreement. Mandatory Copyright Notice: Copyright 2017 NBAE (Photo by Andrew D. Bernstein/NBAE via Getty Images) Andrew D. Bernstein—NBAE/Getty Images  by [Cady Lang](https://time.com/author/cady-lang/)  ## Cady Lang Jun 14, 2017 8:36 PM UTC While [Kevin Durant](http://time.com/4392677/kevin-durant-golden-state-warriors-nba/) has no doubt received plenty of praise and congratulations following [the Golden State Warriors NBA championship win](http://time.com/4815940/nba-warriors-cavaliers-game-5-finals-2017/), especially after he was named Finals MVP, he got a very special shoutout from none other than former President and [noted basketball enthusiast Barack Obama](http://time.com/4702883/barack-obama-2017-ncaa-bracket/). In an interview on _The Bill Simmons Podcast_, KD revealed that the most surprising person to congratulate him following the big win was Obama. Apparently, the former president reached out to him after the game by sending a text through a friend. Durant told Simmons that Obama’s relayed message was “Congrats. Your defense was really good,” but went on to admit that even after taking home the top honors in the league, getting a message from Obama was still a surprise. “He told me to enjoy it, have some fun, you know, typical stuff,” Durant said. “But I wasn’t expecting that.” Listen to the full podcast below. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4818612/obama-kevin-durant-on-nba-championship/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4818612/obama-kevin-durant-on-nba-championship/"},"headline":"Here's How Obama Casually Congratulated Kevin Durant After His First NBA Championship Win","datePublished":"2017-06-14T20:36:25.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:44:30.320Z","description":"Here's what #44 had to say","url":"https://time.com/4818612/obama-kevin-durant-on-nba-championship/","keywords":["Newsfeed","Barack Obama","viral","Kevin Durant","NBA","Golden State Warriors","Sports"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltec2210d9bb60865a/6988d1a9bc6cfc192e3e1d63/kevin-durant-obama-text-nba-finals.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Cady Lang","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/cady-lang/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltec2210d9bb60865a/6988d1a9bc6cfc192e3e1d63/kevin-durant-obama-text-nba-finals.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"2017 NBA Finals - Game Five","caption":"2017 NBA Finals - Game Five","creditText":"Andrew D. 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