Oklahoma City Thunder's Kevin Durant is still a kid at heart
Mike Baldwin
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17
Published: July 1, 2009
To young kids, looking up to Kevin Durant goes beyond the obvious height difference. Durant plays for the Oklahoma City Thunder. He was the 2008 NBA Rookie of the Year.
What they probably don't realize is Durant, still a kid at heart, is having as much fun as the 350 boys and girls ages 7-14 attending his three-day summer camp at Heritage Hall High School.
"My little sister and my little brother are growing up so I can't play with them like they're little kids anymore," Durant said. "It's always good to come out here and interact with the kids, have fun and play basketball. It's good for me and them."
Durant said he will donate proceeds from his camp to an unnamed charity.
"I like to interact with the kids in drills, with everything, just to let them know I'm here in the community to help," Durant said. "I want them to basically think of me as a big brother. It's a lot of fun."
When Durant was a kid he attended DerMarr Johnson's camp in the Washington, D.C. area.
"It was a camp just like this," Durant said. "It was fun. He was there interacting with us, playing with us. I wanted to do the same things here. I try to be a kid, let them know I'm just like them."
Durant reiterated how much he enjoys playing in Oklahoma City and hopes to expand the camp next year and for "years to come."
"I feel (the support) every game, walking on the streets to the mall or to the movies," Durant said. "We were at Chili's (Monday) night and everybody showed us a lot of love. That's what a young team like we have needs... I want to be part of this community for a long time."
Loyal to his University of Texas ties, it's no surprise the "Longhorn award" is the top honor that will be presented following today's final session.
"I was told (Monday) some of the parents weren't too happy about that," Durant said, referring to OU and OSU fans. "But I told them this is my camp and I'm not going to change it."
He even joked he's been talking to Texas coach Rick Barnes.
"I told him I've seen a couple of kids that will be good for him in 2019-20," Durant said.
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"TAMUS holds a minority stake in the Permanent University Fund (PUF), a Texas public endowment fund contributing to eighteen institutions and six agencies in the University of Texas and Texas A&M University systems. As of 2006, the PUF ending net asset value stood at $10.3 billion, with $400.7 million, in FY 2007 transferred to the Available University Fund for distribution to both university systems.[52] The Texas A&M System receives a third of the accumulated interest from the PUF, while the University of Texas System receives the other two-thirds, due to a 1931 Texas Legislature decision."
- "2006 NACUBO Endowment Study"
OU and pretty much any public school will never have access to funding like that. That said, they've succeeded tremendously with what funding they do have and offer an excellent education in multiple areas of study which is valued nationwide.
As a side-note, these rankings are only statistics. You can find idiots (or geniuses) on any campus, regardless of stature or funding. To say any major university is academically superior/inferior to another is juvenile and sophomoric. The books all read the same.
Having said all that Paul, if you just want to live by these stats, the Big XII as a whole is a very reputable conference academically. OU may rank 9th in conference (not 10th, and 108th nationally) but also understand 10 of the 12 Big XII schools rank in the top 130 in the nation. And well, considering how many colleges are out there having that many crack the upper Tier means the entire conference, OU included, is doing a-okay. OU, just like UT, is also a Tier 1 institution in these rankings. So frankly whether UT is #1 in the Big XII and OU #9, really doesn't matter in the grand scheme. They are in the same grouping, one just has more money than the other.
Who cares if Durant played for Texas anyway? You should at least respect your competition.
it's "never would have GONE to Texas," not "went."
People take this rivalry stuff way, way too far. I very much love several programs that are big rivals of UT, having grown up in Oklahoma, with family from Arkansas, and with ties to Mizzou, and enjoy needling Longhorns fans. But as much as I love Oklahoma, some of y'all take this stuff WAY, WAY too seriously. It's GAMES, people, it's supposed to be FUN, and the amount of anger and hate I see from some "fans" is just pointless and depressing.