MIAMI (AP) — If Kevin Durant ultimately decides to chase more Olympic gold, Erik Spoelstra seems interested in coaching him.
Spoelstra, the Miami Heat coach who will lead the U.S. men’s basketball team at the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics, said Saturday he’s aware of Durant’s recent comments about the potential of playing for what would be a fifth gold medal.
And the concept is clearly intriguing.
“Just him saying that is incredible,” Spoelstra — an assistant on the 2024 Olympic team — said before the Heat beat Durant and the Houston Rockets 115-105. “You know, that’s the culture of USA Basketball. You just want the best American players to raise their hand and say, ‘I want to do this.’”
When the 2024 Games were complete, Durant said he wouldn’t rule out a chance at playing in the Olympics again. And Durant told ESPN in a recent interview that he “would love to” play in the Los Angeles Games, adding that he wants his level of play between now and then to convince USA Basketball managing director Grant Hill, national team director Sean Ford, Spoelstra and anyone else involved in the selection process that he’s worthy of a spot.
“Hopefully I get that chance,” Durant said Saturday. “I’ve got to stay on top of my game. I keep saying that. I want to earn my spot on the team. Got to stay on top of my game and hopefully I’m out there with Coach Spo and his staff.”
Durant gave his time with Spoelstra at the Paris Games rave reviews.
“I’ve always been impressed with Coach Spo from afar, but to be in the same locker room with him, to see his intensity, his scouts just made me want to run through a wall,” Durant said. “He was so enthused about being an assistant coach on Team USA and he understood that we wanted to make a statement out there as a team and he backed us.”
Durant’s place in USA Basketball lore was secured long ago.
He’s the only four-time gold medalist in men’s Olympic basketball history, after winning golds in London 2012, Rio de Janeiro 2016, the Tokyo Games that were delayed a year until 2021, then Paris in 2024. In Paris, he became the career leader in points for the U.S. in Olympic competition, passing Lisa Leslie for that mark.
“You can feel his passion for representing the country and having the USA on the jersey,” Spoelstra said. “He’s been incredible in those competitions.”
Durant said one of the big takeaways from his time with Spoelstra in Paris was how someone who is a head coach — an NBA champion head coach, at that — serve as an assistant. As part of Golden State coach Steve Kerr’s staff in Paris, Spoelstra was on the floor after practices and before games to work with players individually, throw them passes in warm-ups, even rebound for them.
“Just doing the dirty work. Spo was great at that,” Durant said. “He made it exciting to come into work every day.”
Spoelstra says the 37-year-old Durant’s game is timeless — proven by the fact that the No. 6 scorer in NBA history, who is on pace to pass Michael Jordan for the No. 5 spot in the coming weeks, is still putting up numbers almost unheard of for someone at that age. At 26.2 points per game this season — 32 of them coming on Saturday — Durant could pass Jordan in about 10 games, or sometime around the third week of March.
“He’s an absolute tactician in terms of his work ethic and how he drills,” Spoelstra said. “It’s a great lesson for all the young players coming into the league. There’s one thing to get up shots and there’s another thing to really work player development and I think that’s a takeaway that we all had, watching him work during the summer, those six weeks.
“After practice, before practice, the days in between, he’s going in there with intention to try — even at this age — to get better and improve. What a beautiful mindset that is.”
___
AP NBA: https://apnews.com/hub/NBA
