Kevin Durant recently made history for Team USA.
After scoring 23 points against the Czech Republic on Saturday, he passed Carmelo Anthony on Team USA’s All-Time scoring list with a tally of 336 total points in Olympic play.
Kevin Durant pulls up from deep to become the U.S. Olympic Men's Basketball Team’s all-time leading scorer! #USABMNT #Tokyo2020 #Basketball
🎥: @NBCOlympicspic.twitter.com/gISymaseHQ
— NBA (@NBA) July 31, 2021
It marks a pretty cool moment for Durant, who is a 2x Olympic Gold medalist.
“You just think about all the players that have played in this program,” Durant said. “It’s pretty cool to be amongst names like that. Carmelo is a guy that I played on two Olympic teams with, and I’ve seen his approach to these games and I’ve tried to steal some of his techniques.
It’s still pretty weird for me to do stuff like this because I play a team sport, and I try my hardest to make it about the group. But it is special to do something like that. Scoring is something I’ve worked on my whole career and expanded my whole career. To consistently do it is pretty cool.”
Interestingly, he also made a prediction on who will be the next guy to break the scoring record: Jayson Tatum.
Kevin Durant on setting the US Olympic record for points scored – "This guy next to me will be the next one." The guy next to him is Jayson Tatum.
— Mark Murphy (@Murf56) July 31, 2021
Tatum is still just 23-years-old, with only 4 seasons of experience under his belt.
He has shown extraordinary talent already, with season averages of 26.4 points, 7.4 rebounds, and 4.3 assists per game for the 2021 campaign.
And while it remains to be seen what he’ll be able to do in the years to come, Durant seems pretty optimistic…
