Kevin Durant won the NBA’s MVP award this week, but it was actually his tear-jerking acceptance speech that’s getting all the attention.
The Oklahoma City Thunder star won his fourth scoring title in five years, averaging 32 points per game and helping his team to a 59-23 record.
All those accomplishments took a back seat to the MVP acceptance speech that Kevin Durant delivered on Tuesday. Durant took to the stage to accept the award, tears in his eyes, and dedicated the award to his mother, Wanda Pratt.
“I don’t think you know what you did. You had my brother when you were 18 years old,” Durant says (around the 23:00 mark). “Three years later, I came out. The odds were stacked against us. Single parent with two boys by the time you were 21 years old.”
Durant added that it was actually his mom who pushed him to succeed in basketball.
“When something good happens to you, I don’t know about you guys, but I tend to look back to what brought me here. You woke me up in the middle of the night in the summertimes. Making me run up a hill. Making me do push-ups. Screaming at me from the sidelines at my games at 8 or 9 years old.
Durant went on to say that the family moved from apartment to apartment in his youth, but his mother always brought stability to the family.
“We weren’t supposed to be here,” Durant told his mother. “You made us believe. You kept us off the street, put clothes on our backs, food on the table. When you didn’t eat, you made sure we ate. You went to sleep hungry. You sacrificed for us. You’re the real MVP.”
By the end of his MVP acceptance speech, Kevin Durant had the entire audience on their feet applauding his mother , who wiped away tears.
