Kevin Durant celebrates Lisa Leslie after passing her as Team USA's all-time Olympic scorer
During Tuesday's game between Team USA basketball and Brazil, Kevin Durant made his name in USA Basketball history. Durant scored 11 points in Team USA's 122-87 victory, which brought his career total of points for Team USA to 494 and counting.
Durant scored a bucket with 3:06 left in the third quarter, giving him six points in the game and 489 in his Olympic career.
The record holder before Durant? Lisa Leslie.
Leslie scored 488 points for Team USA throughout her four Olympic appearances. She led the Americans to the gold medal in 1996, 2000, 2004 and 2008. Since the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games, Leslie has held the record.
After the game Durant took his emotions to social media where he posted a public message directed towards Leslie.
Records are meant to be broken, I’ll hold on to this until another great comes along and passes me up…Lisa Leslie you are the gold standard in basketball, I appreciate your love and support throughout the years..much love to you always…it’s all about the gold baby. Let’s get… pic.twitter.com/huJxy8Qywa
— Kevin Durant (@KDTrey5) August 7, 2024
Leslie also took to social media to send her congratulations to Durant.
Congratulations @KDTrey5 I’m honored to have you break my @TeamUSA Olympic record!!! Our dedication to our country is evident and etched in stone!! Now go get another Gold medal my friend! One Team, One Goal, Gold!
— Lisa Leslie (@LisaLeslie) August 6, 2024
🥇🇺🇸 #GoUSA
Durant is a three-time Olympic gold medalist and is seeking to match Leslie's four golds during this Olympic Games. Team USA men's basketball faces Serbia on Thursday in the semifinals while on their quest for gold.
But this is just the beginning for Durant during this year's Olympics; he is also on the hunt to become the first men's player in Olympic history with four gold medals. He participated in the U.S. teams, winning gold at London 2012, Rio de Janeiro 2016, and the Tokyo Games 2020.
Leslie and Durant's basketball careers were incredibly similar. They revolutionized the sport and were lethal scorers on their respective teams. Durant is the No. 8 scorer in NBA history with 28,924 points and is No. 2 on the active players list. Leslie finished her WNBA career with a total of 6,263 points, sitting at No. 13 of all time.
The two also have their fair share of hardware in their trophy cases regarding championships. They are both two-time champions and won Finals MVP in both championships.
As Durant continues to smash the record books for Team USA, game is respecting game when it comes to the relationship between Durant and Leslie.
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