Last night was a special night for Kevin Durant as he passed Hakeem “The Dream” Olajuwon to become the NBA’s No. 12 leading scorer of all time.
This was an especially impressive accomplishment from Durant as he has unfortunately missed quite a bit of time during his professional career due to injury. In fact, Durant is the only player on the NBA’s top 20 all-time leading scorers list to play less than 1,000 career regular season games.
After passing Olajuwon last night, when asked about his achievement, Durant shared a fun fact with reporters during his postgame interview. He said that growing up, Olajuwon had special significance in his house.
"My mom had a crush on Olajuwon when I was a kid… that's all I used to hear in the house" 🤣 pic.twitter.com/Qn5Kem4Rl7
— NBA (@NBA) October 27, 2023
Here is what Durant had to say:
“My mom had a crush on Olajuwon when I was a kid. So that’s all I used to hear in the house. It wasn’t Jordan. It was Olajuwon in the house. [That’s] somebody she told me to since since [I was] a kid and I really admire his game and his journey as a man and as a basketball player. It’s always amazing to be amongst the greats.”
Durant was able to share the special moment in front of his mom as she attended the game in Los Angeles.
LeBron shares a moment with Wanda Durant ❤️
(via @NBA)pic.twitter.com/T1BE6Ppma0
— Bleacher Report (@BleacherReport) October 27, 2023
Wanda Durant, also known as “The Real MVP” due to an incredible speech from her son, was the Suns-Lakers game and had a chance to briefly catch up with LeBron James after the game.
After all the adversity he has faced overcoming severe injuries, we can only imagine how special it must have felt for her to see her son pass her favorite player in scoring.
