{"id":163069,"date":"2025-10-17T07:00:48","date_gmt":"2025-10-17T11:00:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/?p=163069"},"modified":"2025-10-16T20:30:29","modified_gmt":"2025-10-17T00:30:29","slug":"kevin-durant-against-father-time-in-houston","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2025\/10\/17\/kevin-durant-against-father-time-in-houston\/","title":{"rendered":"Kevin Durant Wages War with Father Time On the Rockets"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>He may be entering his 19th NBA season, but judging by what we&#8217;ve seen over the past few seasons, <a  href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/d\/duranke01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Kevin Durant<\/a> and Father Time will continue to wage war for perhaps a few seasons more. Durant has arguably played as good, if not better, basketball over the past few seasons with the <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2025\/10\/15\/jalen-green-first-career-first-with-suns-isnt-ideal\/\" target=\"_self\">Phoenix Suns<\/a> as he did earlier in his career with the <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2025\/10\/13\/what-thunder-fans-should-expect-from-premiering-documentaries\/\" target=\"_self\">Oklahoma City Thunder<\/a>. Durant has seemingly not given up too many steps to his opponents. He can still pull up from anywhere on the court on a dime, knock down long-distance threes, and outscore most with his lethal scoring ability. With his career now carrying on in Houston, Durant is aware of his place in time. He&#8217;s not ready to succumb to it, however. One thing is for sure, though: Durant is hopeful that Houston <em>will<\/em> be his last stop.<\/p>\n<h2>Kevin Durant Wages War with Father Time On the Rockets<\/h2>\n<h3>Kevin Durant wants Houston Rockets to be final NBA destination as Father Time draws nearer<\/h3>\n<p>One sign that Durant has no intention of retiring just yet is his positive outlook on playing for Team USA again in the 2028 Los Angeles Summer Olympics. He made a few remarks about pushing for that over the summer. The amazing thing is, he has a realistic shot of achieving that goal. <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2025\/10\/09\/kevin-durant-age-defiance-why-37-just-number\/\" target=\"_self\">Durant is 37 years old<\/a>, and he still looks just as nimble and athletic as he did five or ten years ago. Perhaps that has much to do with his body structure, being the slim reaper that he is. It also certainly has much to do with the simple fact that Durant is still lethal on the basketball court. Continuing to average 25-plus points per game at his age also helps, of course.<\/p>\n<p>Yet, even though Durant remains at the top of his game, he&#8217;s also on the back end of his career, and he&#8217;s not lost on that. <a  href=\"https:\/\/www.si.com\/nba\/kevin-durant-rockets-plan-how-nba-perfect-fit-finally-came-together-digital-cover\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Speaking with <em>Sports Illustrated<\/em> recently<\/a>, Durant peered into the future to talk about this final chapter he&#8217;s entered. While finishing his career in Phoenix didn&#8217;t pan out, Durant hopes that Houston offers him a different story.<\/p>\n<p><em>\u201cI\u2019m looking to be here as long as I can, play my last years of my career,\u201d <\/em>Durant said<em>. \u201cThat\u2019s the intent. I know I said that about Phoenix, too, but that\u2019s the intent. I would love to do that, and I mean, I\u2019m 37 years old and I\u2019m going on 19 years in the league. So, I want to be solidified in a spot and build with a team with a group of guys that\u2019s going to be around for a while. So hopefully this is it.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<h3>Year 19 isn&#8217;t about to steal away Durant&#8217;s determination to still be great<\/h3>\n<p>This Rockets are stacked with a bevy of young talent. They have a young core, but solid veteran leadership as well. Pure scorers and depth in the paint are a major strength. Plus, they have one of the top head coaches in the league. Part of Houston&#8217;s upside as a great team is Ime Udokah&#8217;s reputation for holding his players accountable. All these attributes make the Rockets a bona fide contender this season. Durant knows his role within the mix, and he expects to still play at an elite level, which he also commented on.<\/p>\n<p><em>\u201cI always want to be at that elite level, but when you\u2019re in your 40s, I mean you might as well just commit to playing till your wheels fall off. You might as well just maximize that time period. I\u2019m getting older but I just feel like I have a lot to look forward to. I feel like I\u2019ve done a lot as well. I\u2019m content, but I want more, as weird as that sounds.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_163076\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-163076\" style=\"width: 640px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-163076 size-large\" src=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2025\/10\/USATSI_27277745_168415519_lowres-1024x683.jpg\" alt=\"Houston Rockets forward Kevin Durant (7) drives with the ball as Utah Jazz guard Svi Mykhailiuk\" width=\"640\" height=\"427\" srcset=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2025\/10\/USATSI_27277745_168415519_lowres-1024x683.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2025\/10\/USATSI_27277745_168415519_lowres-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2025\/10\/USATSI_27277745_168415519_lowres-768x512.jpg 768w, https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2025\/10\/USATSI_27277745_168415519_lowres-1536x1025.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2025\/10\/USATSI_27277745_168415519_lowres-2048x1366.jpg 2048w, https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2025\/10\/USATSI_27277745_168415519_lowres-600x400.jpg 600w, https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2025\/10\/USATSI_27277745_168415519_lowres-1200x800.jpg 1200w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-163076\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Oct 8, 2025; Houston, Texas, USA; Houston Rockets forward Kevin Durant (7) drives with the ball as Utah Jazz guard Svi Mykhailiuk (10) defends during the third quarter at Toyota Center. Mandatory Credit: Troy Taormina-Imagn Images<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Committing to playing until your wheels fall off is seemingly the trajectory that <a  href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/j\/jamesle01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">LeBron James<\/a> is undertaking. Durant, still three years shy of 40, doesn&#8217;t resemble a ride with wobbly wheels. If he means to still be elite three years from now, it&#8217;s best to believe it. Houston appears to offer him the best chance at another NBA championship. Hopefully, the future in Houston includes Durant for as long as possible. When the time comes, he can then finally hang it up in the place he desires. Father Time: take a seat, in the meantime.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>\u00a9 Troy Taormina-Imagn Images<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>He may be entering his 19th NBA season, but judging by what we&#8217;ve seen over the past few seasons, Kevin Durant and Father Time will continue to wage war for perhaps a few seasons more. Durant has arguably played as good, if not better, basketball over the past few seasons with the Phoenix Suns as [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5081,"featured_media":163071,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3,1608,31,62],"tags":[69,38],"class_list":["post-163069","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-basketball","category-rockets","category-nba","tag-kevin-durant","tag-lebron-james"],"modified_by":"Aaron J Zacharias","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/163069","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5081"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=163069"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/163069\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":163078,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/163069\/revisions\/163078"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/163071"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=163069"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=163069"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=163069"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}