The National Basketball Association (NBA) today announced that NBA Champion Kevin Durant of the Golden State Warriors will visit India to support the continued growth of basketball in the country and coach the country’s top prospects at The NBA Academy India.
Durant, the 2017 Bill Russell NBA Finals Most Valuable Player, will travel to New Delhi on July 27 to donate two new basketball courts to the Ramjas School as part of the Kevin Durant Charity Foundation’s BUILD IT AND THEY WILL BALL Courts Renovation Initiative.
Durant will then visit The NBA Academy India in Noida, becoming the first active NBA player to visit the academy. Durant will coach the prospects through a series of shooting, passing, dribbling and defensive drills.
Later in the afternoon at the academy, Durant will lead a large-scale basketball clinic for 5,000 youth from the Reliance Foundation Jr. NBA program – 1,000 of the athletes will be onsite while the other 4,000 boys and girls will join virtually from Bengaluru, Chennai, Hyderabad and Kolkata via a satellite link.
“I’m excited to travel to India to help promote the game of basketball and meet the prospects at The NBA Academy India,” said Durant. “I’ve wanted to visit India for a long time, and I can’t wait to experience the country’s unique culture and share my knowledge with the kids there.”
“We are thrilled to host 2017 Finals MVP Kevin Durant in India,” said NBA India Managing Director Yannick Colaco. “Kevin is coming off an historic season with the Golden State Warriors. Having one of the very best players in our league interact with the basketball playing youth of India will serve as great inspiration to the next generation of players here, especially the high-performing prospects at The NBA Academy India.”
Durant, a 6’9” forward from the University of Texas, was selected second overall by the Seattle SuperSonics in the 2007 NBA Draft. An eight-time NBA All-Star and the 2014 Kia NBA Most Valuable Player, Durant averaged 25.1 points, 8.3 rebounds, 4.8 assists, 1.6 blocks and 1.1 steals per game during the 2016-17 NBA season while leading the Golden State Warriors to the franchise’s fifth NBA Championship.
