NBA Finals: Texas coach Rick Barnes said OKC Thunder's Kevin Durant would be world's best

But it was Durant who Barnes spent much of his time Thursday talking about.

“You could see Kevin as a high school player and know he's gifted,” Barnes said. “But from the very beginning, he understood it was more than that, that it was about winning.

“People ask me all the time, ‘What does he do for fun?' He plays basketball. He loves it. I don't care where he is, what he does; he wants to be around the game.”

Barnes also praised Kevin Durant the teammate.

“We got to live with him for a year,” Barnes said. “You just knew that he had it.

“As good as he is as a player and a person, he's an all-time great teammate. The best. I mean, he gets it, because he's all about one thing. He realizes that he's not the only person that takes a win. He's special.”