LeBron James & Steph Curry join NBA world in praising Kevin Durant's latest Olympic milestone
Phoenix Suns forward Kevin Durant made history on Tuesday by becoming the Team USA athlete with the most points in Olympic basketball history, surpassing the record set by Lisa Leslie. His Team USA teammates, including LeBron James and Steph Curry, were among those who congratulated him.
"KD" surpassed Leslie's previous mark of 488 points with his 11-point performance against Brazil in Team USA’s 122-87 quarterfinals victory, bringing his total to 494 points.
James and Curry took to social media to praise their fellow Olympian:
“Congrats slim!” Curry wrote in an Instagram story.
“Yessir!! Congrats Trey-5,” added LeBron on his story.
After the game, Durant spoke modestly about his record, expressing that he expects it to be broken by another player:
"Records are meant to be broken, so somebody will come along and do the same to me," Durant said (per Brian Windhorst). "My focus is on trying to win this gold."
Although he has broken the Team USA record, his total is less than half of the all-time Olympic scoring leader, Brazil's Oscar Schmidt.
Schmidt holds the record with a staggering 1,093 points and has the most points scored in a single game with 55 in 1988.
The closest player Durant could surpass in the top five is No. 5-ranked Manu Ginobili, who has 523 points. Durant currently ranks eighth all-time on the list.
With a maximum of two games left in the 2024 Paris Olympics, Durant needs to score 30 points to enter the top five.
Durant and Team USA will face Nikola Jokic and Serbia next on Thursday in the semifinals. If Team USA wins, they will face either hosts France or Germany in the gold medal game.
Lisa Leslie congratulates Kevin Durant
LA Sparks legend and three-time MVP award winner Lisa Leslie took to X/Twitter to congratulate Kevin Durant for breaking her scoring record:
Durant is also Team USA's career men’s leader in rebounds in Olympic play. However, Leslie remains the career leader in Team USA Olympic play for rebounding with 241 in her 32 games.
The 2024 Paris Olympics is Durant’s fourth, as he aims to become the first men’s basketball player in Olympic history to win four golds, having been part of the Team USA squads that won the gold medal at London 2012, Rio de Janeiro 2016 and the 2020 Tokyo Games.