Kevin Durant nearly quit basketball in seventh-grade

On Tuesday, Oklahoma City Thunder star Kevin Durant accepted the National Basketball Association’s Most Valuable Player award and delivered a touching speech that thanked his mother as he called her the true MVP.

While many know how instrumental Durant’s mother has been during his life, they may not have known that she is the one who urged him to stick to basketball.

When Durant was in seventh-grade, he nearly hung up his sneakers and quit basketball because of a lack of attention from AAU coaches. Durant was said that he was going to quit and become a “street kid” until his mother intervened.

Sam Amick of USA Today Sports passed along an interesting nugget of information on Tuesday from an interview he conducted with Durant back in 2012.

“I was going to quit, and be a so-called street guy,” Durant had told Amick. “(Pratt) could see it in my eyes and she pulled me to the side one day, and she slapped it out of me. She talked to me, gave me some good words and kind of revved me up a little bit, so ever since then I’ve been on the same path.”

It sure looks like that plan worked out for everyone.

Durant is now one of the most talented players in the league and a true role model for kids around the country.

Had Durant turned to street life at a young age, there is no telling what could have happened.

Instead, he took his mother’s advice and stuck to the game that eventually turned out to be his career and now he is one of the few true superstars that is at the top of his game and leading his team on a run to the NBA Finals.