There are few professional athletes whose height has been argued more fiercely than Kevin Durant’s.
For years, fans and critics of Durant have pointed out the major discrepancies between his statements and what can be seen on the basketball court.
No matter what Kevin Durant’s actual height may be, few modern players have made as big a splash as Durant has over the past decade.
How Tall Is Kevin Durant?
Kevin Durant is actually about 6’10.75” when he isn’t wearing shoes, despite being listed at 6’9” for years.
The lack of honesty surrounding the forward’s height was most noticeable when he was towering over his teammates who were listed as 6’10”.
For nearly a decade, Durant admitted to lying about his height and had his height listed at 6’9” since he entered the National Basketball Association.
By the time Durant is laced up for a game, he was nearly seven feet tall in his sneakers.
When Durant was asked why he chose to lie about his height, he claimed that it was simply out of his love for “messin’ with people.”
Boogie joked that he told KD to stop standing next to him. Boogie listed at 6-11, Durant at 6-9. pic.twitter.com/E2OIJwXKVS
— Adam Zagoria (@AdamZagoria) June 29, 2016
Some fans feel that the basketball star’s height had been a source of insecurity for the player in his rookie years.
Now that Kevin Durant has gotten more comfortable with who he is as a player, he feels that he can be himself freely on the court.
I still think it’s crazy JA and KD are basically the same height… pic.twitter.com/EdCX7UJsaX
— Michael Grady (@Grady) November 23, 2021
Although Kevin Durant was dishonest about his actual height, it doesn’t affect the way he was able to make a name for himself through his clever ball handling.
The Personal Information Crackdown
The National Basketball Association has recognized that there are frequent discrepancies regarding their players’ personal information, including attributes such as height, weight, and age.
The sheer lack of honesty surrounding their information has led fans of the National Basketball Association to stop trusting what the professional basketball league says.
Kevin Durant wasn’t the first or last player to lie about their height, nor is he even the only person on his team to have an incorrect height listed.
Some of the other Brooklyn Nets players who have had to correct their official heights include Kyrie Irving, Theo Pinson, Taurean Prince, Henry Ellenson, Spencer Dinwiddie, Caris LaVert, and Garrett Temple.
This problem has spread across the National Basketball Association and isn’t even limited to a select few teams, ranging from the Detroit Pistons to the Washington Wizards.
By correcting the heights of players, the National Basketball Association hopes to restore “the integrity of information.”
To help ensure that the height and weights of players are accurate, they must be confirmed by each team physician before the second week of training camp.
Players will also be required to submit their passports and driver’s licenses for review by that time.
The personal information crackdown was partly started after Sacramento Kings listed Buddy Hield as a year younger than he actually was.
Hield didn’t even know about the mistake until his mother pointed out that Wikipedia had his birth year incorrect.
When the player’s mother showed him the mistake, he went to check his information on the Sacramento Kings page and found that his player listing was inaccurate as well.
Buddy Hield has made it abundantly clear that he was shocked by the mistake and wasn’t pleased with the misinformation going around the internet and the world of basketball.
Traded To The Brooklyn Nets
In 2019, Kevin Durant left the Golden State Warriors and signed a four-year $164 million contract with the Brooklyn Nets.
This was the biggest deal that Brooklyn Nets has ever signed a player to.
The team would be committing to $400 million for Durant alone.
As Kevin Durant went to join the Brooklyn Nets, the Golden State Warriors received Treveon Graham, Shabazz Napier, and D’Angelo Russell.
To sweeten the deal for the Nets, they also received a first-round pick in the 2020 National Basketball Association Draft from the Golden State Warriors.
The Brooklyn Nets were so excited to have signed Durant that they quickly announced his arrival to the team on Twitter before there could even be a press release organized.
The team was so excited to have the champion player on their team that they continued to celebrate across multiple social media posts.
Durant’s new team came with a new number as well, despite Durant being best known for being number 35 on the Warriors.
As a new member of the Nets, the All-Star player began wearing the number 7 on his jersey.
Kevin Durant was believed to be the perfect player to help the Brooklyn Nets through their three-year transformation, which has been orchestrated by Sean Marks and head coach, Kenny Atkinson.
Marks believed that Durant had some of the best talent his generation had to offer and that Durant would be a key part of leading the struggling team to victory.
Atkinson pointed to Durant’s “incredible skill, resilience, and tenancy” that would help give the Nets the competitive edge they need to strive for the professional league.
Durant was signed shortly after Brooklyn added his dear friend, Kyrie Irving, to the reformed team.
Being A “Bus Rider” Versus Being A “Bus Driver”
Kevin Durant may have been brought to the Brooklyn Nets to help lead the New York team to victory, but the Brooklyn Nets seemed to have fallen apart despite hiring some of the best players in the National Basketball Association.
Nets fans and basketball fans, in general, have begun pointing fingers at many of the team’s newest star players, like Kevin Durant and Ben Simmons.
Although nobody truly knows what happened to Durant between leaving the Golden State Warriors and joining the Brooklyn team, it seems that Charles Barkley and Shaquille O’Neal feel that they know exactly what’s going on.
Both basketball legends believe that Durant has fallen into the role of “bus rider” rather than being the “bus driver.”
These two phrases are commonly used in the National Basketball Association to describe those who lead a team versus those who sit back, just joining the team mindlessly as they travel.
Barkley felt that Kevin Durant wanted to boast about being the champion player for his new team, but wasn’t acting as a strong enough leader for the team to do so.
If Durant wants to talk about his championship rings from previous seasons, then Barkley believes that he needs to prove how he got those rings every time he steps onto the court.
Durant wasn’t pleased with Charles Barkley’s comments and decided to respond to Barkley’s comments by posting pictures of Barkley with his teammates from the Philadelphia 76ers and the Houston Rockets with the caption, “Where would Chuck be without the homies?”
The spat between Charles Barkley and Kevin Durant ended with Ernie Johnson handing Barkley the keys to his very own bus, with its name “The Chuck Wagon” detailed on the side.
Johnson jokingly told Barkley that he was the bus driver and was going to need to drive everyone home.
The Friendship Between Durant And Irving
Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving have been playing alongside each other since they brought home the gold medal for the United States at the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
Both of these young basketball stars were quick to prove their talents in front of a worldwide audience, sparking a friendship that would continue throughout their professional basketball careers.
Durant has publicly announced how much he loves being able to play alongside Irving since joining the Brooklyn Nets.
While the COVID-19 pandemic and vaccination statuses have gotten in the way of the pair fully being able to play next to each other again, Durant is eagerly waiting for the day when the pair can go back to being a challenging tag team.
Even though Durant and Irving may not always agree on the basketball court, they don’t allow their work problems to get in the way of their off-court relationship.
Their friendship is vastly too important to them for either one of them to want to ruin it over something that happens on the basketball court.
When Kyrie Irving’s unvaccinated status got in the way of his being able to join the team for games, Durant wasn’t going to deny that it was frustrating not to have Irving by his side.
However, Durant also knows that his dear friend can be difficult to sway on such subjects and decided to keep his frustration over the topic to himself.
Durant has clarified that despite how frustrated he may get with his longtime friend, he could never have it in him to be truly mad at him.
Although Durant knows that some Brooklyn Nets fans want to see him get mad over his teammates like Irving and Ben Simmons not playing much recently, he feels that his life is too amazing to focus on negative emotions.
Venturing Into Investments
Inspired by his time representing number 35 for the Golden State Warriors, Kevin Durant co-founded 35 Ventures with Rich Kleiman.
This investment company has allowed Durant to responsibly invest his money in the types of companies that the All-Star wants to see around him.
A hefty portion of Durant’s fortune has come from the 10-year $300 million contract that he signed with Nike back in 2014.
He has also gotten major endorsement deals from companies such as Alaska Airlines and Google.
Durant is quick to acknowledge that he may be “just a basketball player,” but it has been his ability to find people who are experts in their field that has allowed him to build up 35 Ventures.
The All-Star is quick to point to the support around him when it comes to how he has managed to become such a successful businessman.
35 Ventures has invested in popular startup companies such as Acorn, Robinhood, SeatGeek, Coinbase, Brigit, Imperfect Foods, Lime Scooters, Just Women’s Sport, and Postmates.
Due to increased popularity in cryptocurrency and NFT trading, Coinbase has seen massive leaps in popularity.
When the pandemic hit, many Americans relied on services like Postmates to employ them temporarily or bring them the groceries they need to survive.
35 Ventures has been investing in Hypebeast since it was a private company and recently got to watch the company successfully go public.
Kevin Durant and his investment company have also funded Creatively, an online network that allows companies to find creative talents and makes it easier for creatives to get hired.
Many of the businesses in which Durant decides to invest are innovators in their fields, like Memora Health, which wants to change the way that people receive their healthcare supplies and medications.
