Kevin Durant celebrated his 32nd birthday on Tuesday by officially joining the podcast game. Along with his co-host, Eddie Gonzalez, Durant has launched his show “The ETCs with Kevin Durant,” which is part of The Boardroom podcast network.
In the first episode, Durant had his friend and Brooklyn Nets teammate Kyrie Irving on the show as his first guest.
Throughout the interview, Irving talked about his upbringing — focusing primarily on his father and his sister — New York vs. New Jersey basketball, who he is on and off the court and the influence of religion in his life, as well as his first interaction with the late Kobe Bryant, whom the Nets point guard developed a close relationship with in time:
[My] rookie year we played against each other but I didn’t talk to him. I get a chance to speak to him. … In 2012, I get invited to Team USA and we’re on the Select Team. … The idea is that we’re supposed to get Team USA ready to play against these other national teams. So we go — I’m coming on Rookie of the Year, by the way, I thought I mentioned that. After practice, everybody used to split up into groups, and this is when I realized that I had no idea about getting older in the NBA, until now. Kobe didn’t get extra work after much, in terms of when the Select Team was there because I know everybody was just now getting back in shape.
So, I go over to Kobe. Kobe is about to get ice from the trainer. … I walk over there my heart’s pounding bro, I don’t know why. I’m like, I’m about to go talk with Kobe, I’m about to be like ‘Yo. Honestly, I’ll beat you one-on-one, bro.’ I practiced the line in my head. I would practice in the mirror. I’m like, I’ll go straight-up, like ‘Yo Kobe, man. Like, I can beat you one-on-one man. Honestly, we should get this one-on-one game (going). Honestly, I think you can’t guard me.
Kobe also had an aura about him at this time that if you were around him, he gravitated toward the real ones, and he would have a conversation with the real people and he would address you in a respectful manner as long as you gave the same respect and showed no fear.
They never got to play one-on-one, but Irving thinks that had to do with Bryant’s respect for the then Cleveland Cavaliers guard.
In the years to come, Bryant would help Irving work through his first knee injury and he was going to help him with building something in Boston, but, as the Nets point guard reiterated on Durant’s show, the passing of Irving’s grandfather changed his course.