ORLANDO — Check that one off, KD.
Behind a game-high 36 points (tied with LeBron), Kevin Durant took home his first All-Star Game MVP in the West’s 152-149 win over the East.
“Dream come true. Just blessed to be here,” Durant said. “They were feeding me the ball. I’m glad to be taking this back to Oklahoma City.”
KD came out firing, scoring 21 in the first half and was sitting on 34 heading to the fourth quarter. Which actually had him in the conversation for setting the all-time mark for most points in a game, held by Wilt Chamberlain with 42.
“It’s just an exciting feeling to be named an All-Star,” KD said. “But to step it up another level and win MVP is a dream come true.”
KD also saw a game-high in minutes with more than 37. All part of the plan though. Because it was obvious — Durant wanted this.
“I wasn’t surprised at all,” he said. “Me and Scotty have been talking about this for a couple of weeks.”
Said Scott Brooks: “He just comes in and does his work. He’s a tremendous kid as well as you all know. Off the court, he’s classy, he’s a special teammate. What he does doesn’t surprise me other than he did well at the Three-point Shooting Contest last night. That actually surprised me.”
Durant won the MVP with nine votes out of a possible 13. The other votes went to Kobe (three votes) and LeBron (one vote).
Also of note was Kobe Bryant setting the all-time mark for points in the All-Star Game, passing Michael Jordan. But with Durant notching 36 more to go with 49 total in the other two appearances. That’s just 186 shy of Kobe’s mark.
Said Dwyane Wade, “With KD in the league, I don’t know how long it’s going to last.”
I think after this game you cant argue about who the most athletic point guard... Russ > rose...
although rose does probably have better body control
@RodneyRosavelRusanWilson As a diehard - I am biased - liking Westbrook a great deal more than Rose. But Rose has been (and still is) suffering from his bootleg back. Cant really infer Russell's athletic ability over Rose. Both can jump out the gym. Here is a ridiculous highlight from Rose in his days at Simeon High School.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pLsaXkMs9XE
@DallasDupree russ couldnt even dunk in highschool, so they say...
i hear what your saying, it was just good to see russ doing his thing on a big national stage
@RodneyRosavelRusanWilson agreed agreed. And more big things to come :)
@RodneyRosavelRusanWilson I don't think you can solely base that on this game. Rose is still dealing with a back injury that had hampered him this season. I would of said Rose may have been slightly more athletic this time last year because he hangs for so long in the air.
http://twitpic.com/8p9e2v
Because this makes all the sense in the world.
@David_MN Scott Brooks F. Baby
@RodneyRosavelRusanWilson Breezy. Scott Breezy.
Rookie of the year, 2 time scoring champion, fiba gold medal, asg mvp, kd is just the man. Now time for mvp, ring(sssssss), finals mvp, gold medal THIS summer AFTER all the others previously mentioned accomplished this season. Well, u get what I'm saying.
@Remify don't forget coach of the year and/or gm of the year after retirement
@sutpen @Remify He's just going to be known as "Mr. Basketball"
My favorite play of the night was the Nash pass to Westbrook for the reverse. Beautiful basketball.
@soonerstatestud I loved the Paul to Westbrook slam.
@ThunderWins @soonerstatestud That was a nasty dunk..
still find it funny that for all the grief he garners for failing to close out game, Lebron has the ball in his hands with an open chance to tie with the 3 (he was 6-8 on the night), and he turns the ball over on a horrible pass trying to force it to Wade.. i really feel like the guy is just afraid of failure in the moment.. hot form 3 all night, the best overall player for the East by far, and he gives up the final shot?.. KD would never pull that move
@ChilamBilam12 i have to agree with you on that. he had plenty of time to shake kobe *he did already once that night* and he was hot from beyond the arc. WHY he threw it into the corner with 3 red west jerseys well never know. kobe was giving him shit after that like.. YOU TAKE THAT SHOT! you wanna be an all star YOU TAKE IT. kd would of.
@ChilamBilam12 I have to disagree. That was the possession where he caught the long rebound. He was being guarded by Kobe when he grabbed the rebound and shadowed by another player. No way he was getting a decent shot off. Yes, it was a bad pass, but I think a shot there would have been the wrong move. The real question is why Thibodeau didn't draw up the last inbounds play for him.
Congrats to KD, and Russ for doing his thing
Worst All-Star uniforms ever.
@courtsense yea those were mind-boggline hideous - particularly the west team. Who thought up that color scheme?? shesh...
@courtsense i liked the fit. could have done without the gradient on the top though. gradients never look good on sports jerseys.
KD was great, game was entertaining. I actually thought Lebron might win MVP even though his team lost, or that it would be Kobe because his passing of Jordan. But alas, KD got the award which I'm certainly happy about, but I felt he could have done more. I said yesterday that he would go for 35+, he finished with 36. I think he could have gotten 42-45 in the game at the pace it was going and that would have blown people away.
Lets see if he can get the season MVP now, and more importantly, the Finals MVP.
@C_Dub Yea even though he scored 36 it was a calm 36 typical kd lol
@Lost Ones @C_Dub KD just floats to 30 point games. It amazing how natural it is for him to score, if anything they should have been feeding him.
KD was "the artist" that I was most interested in seeing win tonight (sorry that was really bad I know).
@Old Man Game LOL...Considering it was the Oscars and not the Grammys. But I 2nd the idea that Best Male Lead went to.....KD.
@soonerstatestud @Old Man Game "The Artist" was the name of the film that won Best Picture tonight. ;)
Russ slowed down scoring wise in the 2nd but it was kind of amazing watching the first half realizing 2 of the thunders players are in the top tier of the top tier
@OBoymuzik I was hoping Westbrook would keep it up and make a run at that MVP himself. That would have been really nice if the two best players in the game were Thunder players.
this is all so sudden so beautiful words cant explain it
I liked the play where Russ threw it off the glass and freaked it on a missed dunk!
to be honest, KD says he wants stars in the dunk contest.... I'd kinda like to see him. He throws down some ultra impressive stuff on the sly.
@JimboSlice fly over Brendan Haywood's head
This was the best play: http://www.nba.com/video/channels/allstar/2012/02/26/20120226_allstar_game_play27.nba/index.html?ls=iref:nbahpt2
Tried to link it multiple times, but it keeps linking to the wrong one. Its the Westbrook one hander off the CP3 feed.
@Stringer Bell Thanks for posting. I was in my car listening on the radio when he did that so I hadn't seen it yet. If there's a better dunker playing the point guard position in the NBA I haven't seen him.
Just going out on a limb though, but I'd say KD breaks Kobe's record and does it with less than 80% of the fga's Kobe took to get it.
@JimboSlice How many years? Kobe has had 14.
@ThunderWins @JimboSlice Even at 30 per ASG, KD will need another 6 or 7, so a total of 10 ASG's to beat Kobe's scoring Mark. Keep in mind though that Kobe is probably not done attending ASGs.
What else is probably in his list? MVP, Finals MVP, multiple RINGZZZZ?
Congrats KD!