Kevin Durant’s Performance Against Serbia Is a Warning to the World

Kevin Durant checked into the USA-Serbia men’s basketball game in Lille, France, on Sunday afternoon, with 2 minutes, 33 seconds left in the first quarter and his team requiring a boost. Serbia led 20-14 and the American men, favored to win the gold medal, were making some sloppy mistakes, on both ends of the floor. 

The all-time leading scorer in United States Olympic men’s basketball history, who missed the team’s five pre-Olympic tune-up games due to a calf injury, was about to change the trajectory of this affair, in front of a sold-out crowd of 27,000 people at Pierre Mauroy Stadium, which usually hosts soccer. Which is fitting, because with the international crowd dressed in a multicolored tapestry of different NBA and national-team jerseys—in honor of their favorite players—and fans singing and waving their flags, the game felt like a World Cup football match, not a run-of-the-mill Olympic group-stage opener for both teams.  

So be it that Durant hadn’t played on a public competitive stage since the end of April, when his NBA season for the Phoenix Suns ended in a first-round playoff sweep at the hands of the Minnesota Timberwolves. He made a three-pointer within 15 seconds of entering the game. After Anthony Edwards hit one of his own, Durant sank another three before the first quarter was through; the U.S. now led 25-20. In the second quarter, he made six more shots in a row, of varying degrees of difficulty. A Serbian defender is harassing Durant as he pulls up for a mid-range jumper? Bang. Nikola Jokic, the reigning NBA MVP, contests a Durant corner three? Durant made it anyway. By the time KD made another basket just before the end of the half, the U.S. had a 58-49 advantage, and Durant’s stat line was outrageous. In just nine minutes of playing time, he had scored 21 points on perfect 8-for-8 shooting. 

“There’s nothing he does that’s surprising,” Olympic rookie Stephen Curry, Durant’s former Golden State Warriors teammate, said after the game.

The Americans kept the momentum going in the second half, throttling Serbia 110-84 despite Jokic’s 20 points, eight assists, five rebounds, and four steals. (Serbia and the Americans played to a draw while Jokic was in the game; during his nine minutes on the bench, the U.S. outpaced the Serbians by 26 points.) Durant finished with 23 points, and LeBron James chipped in 21 on top of nine assists and seven rebounds. 

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Expectations are higher than usual for this U.S. men’s Olympic basketball team, as fans and experts have tapped it as the potential true successor to the Dream Team, the 1992 U.S. squad featuring legends like Michael Jordan, Magic Johnson, and Larry Bird. While the Dream Team’s victory in Barcelona surely helped sparked the global growth that was on display in Lille, this collection of players, more than any previous U.S. entry to Games since the Dream Team, features the proper mix of gravitas and up-and-coming star power to also be revered for generations. James, Durant, and Curry are the Magic-Michael-Larry of this century. 

Fans can shout forever about which trio is better. But both have inspired legions of followers around the world.

On Sunday morning Guillermo Castroconde, a Dr. Pepper sales manager from Omaha, stood waiting for a train at Gare de Nord in Paris, among hundreds of hoopheads making the trip to the game. Castroconde, a 33-year-old James devotee, came all the way from Nebraska because this is his Dream Team. “I couldn’t miss this one,” he said. “I wasn’t around when Jordan was playing. Thirty years from now, I don’t want to have regrets.”

At a hotel near Lille’s main train station, you could be forgiven for thinking French President Emmanuel Macron—or someone of his ilk—was spending the night, given all the people gathered on a typically quiet street, behind security barriers. But a scan of all the basketball clothing told a different tale: this must be where Team USA is holed up. One boy, wearing a James Laker jersey, sat high above the crowd, on his father’s shoulders. Another boy was perched on his dad’s shoulders, a few rows back. He donned a Curry Golden State Warriors kit to balance things out. 

Maria Delceva, a 23-year-old Domino’s Pizza manager , traveled alone from Sofia, Bulgaria, to watch USA-Serbia. “My dream was to come to Paris and to watch Steph Curry play,” she said. “So hey, I win.” She was in the front row of a mass of basketball fans, numbering hundreds if not thousands, waiting to enter the stadium some two hours before tip. She didn’t want to share exactly how much money she spent to get there. “It was a lot,” she says. 

The Americans fed off all the energy. “Phenomenal,” James said after the game. “Sitting there, listening to our national anthem, listening to the fans cheer, definitely got a little nervous. My stomach, the butterflies came out. It was something that was different.”

“I looked around and seeing so many different NBA jerseys in the stands, I just love when the game of basketball can bring people from all over the world, different walks of life, together like that,” said Durant. 

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The customers got the show they expected, a little mix of everything: Durant’s explosion, James’ all-around excellence and ability to bowl over defenses to score, Curry nailing three three-pointers—including his patented look-away routine at the end of the game. Edwards, the NBA’s most enthralling current aerialist, caught an alley-oop from James. Pesky Derrick White, a relative role player, did his job, notching a couple of steals. 

The U.S., which plays South Sudan in pool play Wednesday, is so loaded that Jayson Tatum, an all-NBA first-team selection who is coming off winning a title with the Boston Celtics, didn’t even get into the game. Joel Embiid, the 2023 NBA MVP, received merciless jeers from French fans every time he touched the ball. (Embiid chose to play for the U.S., rather than France, at these Olympics.) He wasn’t very impactful in limited minutes, but that didn’t really matter.

After the game, U.S coach Steve Kerr wouldn’t say much about keeping Durant in a permanent sixth-man role throughout the Olympic tournament. Given how well he played off the bench tonight, though, Kerr should probably stick with what’s working until further notice. Durant doesn’t mind that idea. “I told coach, whatever you need from me, I'm willing to do anything and adapt to anything. It’s always been fun trying to figure out new roles. Just adapt to whatever the game tells me.”

KD took just one shot from the field in the second half—he missed a mid-range attempt from the corner, ending his perfect night. “Oh man,” Durant said afterward. “It felt great leaving my hands.” 

That’s one miss America can live with.