--- title: Kevin Durant NBA MVP Speech Gets Emotional description: Durant ended the speech with a touching tribute to his mother. canonical: https://time.com/90985/kevin-durant-mvp-speech/ author: Eliana Dockterman article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-05-07T16:48:14.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-21T07:42:17.671Z article:section: World og:title: Kevin Durant NBA MVP Speech Gets Emotional og:description: Durant ended the speech with a touching tribute to his mother. og:url: https://time.com/90985/kevin-durant-mvp-speech/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Kevin Durant NBA MVP Speech Gets Emotional twitter:description: Durant ended the speech with a touching tribute to his mother. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # Kevin Durant Gives Emotional MVP Acceptance Speech  by [Eliana Dockterman](/author/eliana-dockterman/)  ## Eliana Dockterman Correspondent May 7, 2014 4:48 PM CUT  by [Eliana Dockterman](/author/eliana-dockterman/)  ## Eliana Dockterman Correspondent May 7, 2014 4:48 PM CUT Newly-minted NBA MVP Kevin Durant gave a tear-filled acceptance speech on Tuesday. The Oklahoma City Thunder star thanked his fans, teammates and his mom in a 25-minute speech that left the audience reaching for their tissues. He told personal stories about his relationships with each of his teammates, and his coach, thanking them all by name. But the real tear-jerking moments came when Durant thanked his mother. By 21, Wanda Pratt was the single mother of two sons. Durant recalled when his mom used to wake him up in the middle of the night to work out and improve his game and the moments when she went to bed hungry but made sure her children were fed. “You sacrificed for us. You’re the real MVP,” he told her in the speech. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/90985/kevin-durant-mvp-speech/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/90985/kevin-durant-mvp-speech/"},"headline":"Kevin Durant Gives Emotional MVP Acceptance Speech","datePublished":"2014-05-07T16:48:14.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-21T07:42:17.671Z","description":"Get the tissues ready for Durant's teary tribute to his mother","url":"https://time.com/90985/kevin-durant-mvp-speech/","keywords":["NBA","Basketball","Kevin Durant"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Eliana Dockterman","jobTitle":"Correspondent","url":"https://time.com/author/eliana-dockterman/"}],"articleSection":"World","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/world/","name":"World"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/nba/","name":"NBA"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/90985/kevin-durant-mvp-speech/","name":"Kevin Durant Gives Emotional MVP Acceptance Speech"}}]}] ```