Kevin Durant was a baby and Anthony Durant was a toddler when their father left the family. Wanda was 21 years old and had to raise both of them by herself.
A basketball star Kevin Durant has won two Most Valuable Player awards in the NBA Finals, but he says that his mother Wanda Durant is “the real MVP.”
Their father left when they were babies, leaving their mother Wanda, who was 21, to raise them by herself.
It looked like the odds were against us. In his 2014 MVP speech, Kevin said, “By the time you were 21, you were a single parent with two boys.” “We didn’t need to be here. You made us believe. You took care of us so we didn’t have to sleep in our cars and eat out of cans. Some of us were fed while you were still full. You were probably very hungry before bed. You did a lot for us. You must be the league’s best player
Wanda thinks that her sons worked hard to reach their goals because she worked hard to get them. “I continued to love them, spend time with them, be there for them, and be as involved as I could be,” she told NBA.com. “When I thought back on my life, I realized that my sons were able to follow in my footsteps and reach their goals by holding on to hope and not giving up.”
She has always been Kevin’s biggest fan, both on and off the court. Now she is a motivational speaker and philanthropist who works to make the lives of people in underprivileged areas better.
Who is Wanda Durant, anyway? Read on to learn about her amazing life, how much she has given, and the important work she does now.
She gives speeches to motivate people.”Where there is hope, there is possibility,” Wanda writes on her website MamaDurant.com, which is a big part of her philosophy. In her biography, it says, “Her passion is to encourage underserved children, single mothers, and communities to rise above their current situations and reach greater heights in life.”
People have heard her speak at the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation Annual Legislative Conference, the White House United State of Women Summit, and the Ford Foundation.
The Durant Family Foundation is run by her and her husband.The goal of the group is “to improve the lives of at-risk youth from low-income families through social, athletic, and educational programs.”
But the Durants find that some of the group’s projects are important to them personally. Since Kevin’s hometown of Bowie, Maryland is in Prince George’s County, the foundation gave $500,000 to fix up the basketball courts at the university there in 2022.
The place I call “home” We’re very close to the people and places in PG County and at Bowie State University. It was meant to happen because Kevin played at the first HBCU in Maryland.
In 2022, she told Essence, “I’m Kevin’s biggest fan.” He’ll always be Kevin after that. Since I’m a professional athlete, I know that there will be fans and haters on both sides. I’m still his mom, no matter what. What other people think doesn’t matter. When it comes to people, I like him a lot.
During Kevin’s recovery from his injuries, she has been the place where his supporters have come together.
Durant had a lot of tough injuries in the 2018–19 season, including a calf injury and an Achilles tendon rupture that kept him out of Game 5 of the NBA Finals. In an interview with Good Morning America, Wanda thanked her fans around the world, saying, “I’m just so grateful, and our family is thankful to the fans all over the world who have sent us their prayers, who have contacted me on social media, who have sent general responses.” As a result, “we appreciate it immensely.”The silver screen has said nice things about her.In 2016, Lifetime showed the first episode of the film about Wanda’s life, called The Real MVP: The Wanda Durant Story. The story was mostly about how a family tried to inspire and motivate their two sons to do well even though they lived in bad conditions. Pauletta Washington played the lead role in the movie that Queen Latifah produced.
She doesn’t mind supporting her son’s career choices in public.Wanda has always stood up for Kevin when he has been criticized while he was playing basketball. NBA player Kyrie Irving’s controversial actions have made the team’s success on the court less important, according to Bleacher Report. Stephen A. Smith of ESPN said that Kevin may have hurt his legacy by joining the Brooklyn Nets in 2022.
Wanda replied to Smith on Twitter by asking, “When will you show up better?”Smith replied in public, “I love the NBA moms, and they all know that.” In the NBA, she’s one of the nicest people I’ve ever met. You can talk to me about anything you want, in person, on Twitter, or anywhere else. You can expect nothing less than my utmost respect and deference because that’s how I really feel about you. I wasn’t bothered by what she said. There’s nothing wrong with her speaking up for her child.
She really cares about causes like Graves’ disease and thyroid eye disease.Even though Wanda had been diagnosed with Graves disease (17 years ago), a thyroid disease, it was hard for her to get a diagnosis of thyroid eye disease (TED), which is related.
Wanda told Ebony in 2022, “If I had known about the risk of TED sooner, I would have been more careful with my eyes and seen a TED Eye Specialist.” So, I’ve made it my life’s work to stop other people from making the same mistake I did and living with it for so long.