Kevin Durant and the Exclusives.
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There was a symmetry to the moment. The first point of Kevin Durant’s unreal NBA journey, on Halloween night in 2007, came on a free throw in an eventual loss. The 30,000th point of Durant’s career, on a February night in 2025, came on a free throw in an eventual loss.
And no one will remember either game. That 2007 contest was the regular-season opener for the Seattle SuperSonics, Durant’s first team. It was on the road. Although people get excited about season openers, they generally don’t recall much about them. With everything so fresh and untested in Game 1, we tend to say to each other, It’s too early to draw conclusions, and we’re usually right.
Last night — same. The Phoenix Suns, Durant’s fifth team (counting Seattle’s move to OKC), got beat at home by a Memphis team that is better top to bottom. The Suns were expected to be huge players at the trade deadline, but they came up empty, leaving Durant and his teammates to sort through weeks of rumors but no action that left them dispirited, listless and losing a lot. They’re basically just waiting for the All-Star break.
Because of all that, this moment of Durant’s feels like it slipped everyone’s minds. So let me back up a couple of paragraphs and note what happened.
Kevin Durant scored the 30,000th point of his NBA career last night.
Do you know how rare that is?
Well, only seven other players in the history of the league have scored that many. It’s a club of eight. Here they are: