Well before Kevin Durant shocked the NBA and signed with the Golden State Warriors, he was the No. 2 overall pick in the 2007 draft. (Greg Oden went No. 1 before the Seattle SuperSonics lucked in to Durant.)
It was obvious for years before that draft, however, that Durant would be a lottery pick. At 6-foot-11, with handles like a point guard and a jump shot like Jesus Shuttlesworth, Durant was a sure-fire prospect from a young age. He was the MVP of the 2006 McDonald's All-American Game, and at Texas he became the first freshman ever to win Naismith College Player of the Year.
Durant's bright NBA future was so obvious that his father, Wayne Pratt, used to call him "Green Room"—a reference to the draft's green room for lottery picks who wait to hear their names—at his high school games, according to The Undefeated.
“When he was playing his junior year I used to yell, ‘Green Room!’” Pratt said. “He used to say, ‘Dad, you have to stop saying that.’ I saw that he was going to be special. I saw that in between his 10th and 11th-grade year. I said, ‘This kid is going to be a lottery pick.’ I kind of saw that his game was unique for his size."
Pratt added, “He would tell me to stop saying that because he is so humble. I was just saying that I saw talent. Being a high school basketball coach, I had never seen anything like it."
Durant probably even exceeded his father's expectations, winning 2008 NBA Rookie of the Year and 2014 MVP.
It's an interesting piece on Durant's complicated history with his father and his decision-making process in selecting the Warriors. You can read the whole thing here.
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