Kevin Durant’s next trip to Austin brings him back to a place that still feels personal, even if the scene around him has changed completely. The Houston Rockets forward will be on the floor at Moody Center against the San Antonio Spurs, marking another homecoming to the city where he spent one formative year at Texas and built the foundation he still talks about with real affection.
Durant has never lost the thread to Austin. He talked this week about arriving in Texas after high school and having to figure everything out on his own.
“This is like my foundation,” Durant told reporters on Friday morning. “The day I graduated high school, the next day I came to Texas by myself.
I was here for that whole year. No friends, no family.
I had to meet everybody here, so I grew up, learned a lot about myself."
He added: “I love this university. I feel like I’m always be attached to this university.”
That attachment shows up in the little things, too. Durant said he wants to be around more and pointed to Texas athletic director Chris Del Conte nudging him to come back to campus more often.
“I need to get back here more,” Durant said. “I need to be around more. (Texas athletic director Chris Del Conte) is always telling me I need to come back around more.”
The relationship has stayed strong over time. Durant remains connected to Texas coach Rick Barnes, now at Tennessee, and to former teammates like Justin Mason, who he spoke with Thursday night. Even after leaving for the NBA, Durant kept coming back in the summers to work out with the Longhorns and even tried to take classes while juggling his offseason training.
“I felt like I completed school almost,” Durant said. “Even though I stayed for one year, I would come back every summer and spend most of my summers here.”
He also remembered a much younger version of himself from his first return to Austin for an NBA game, when he was still thinking about a Chevy Cavalier, the mall and walks down Sixth Street.
“We used to go to the mall every weekend,” Durant recalled in February 2025 while still with the Phoenix Suns, “buy our clothes ... then we would walk around on Sixth Street."
That first NBA homecoming came 18 months ago, and Durant is now coming back with a different uniform and a different set of circumstances. At 36 then and now a 20-year NBA veteran, he’s geographically closer to those Texas memories as a Rocket. The Spurs, meanwhile, are no longer the team trying to make the most of an unusual night in Austin.
In 2025, San Antonio came into Moody Center dealing with a tough season and no Victor Wembanyama after his deep vein thrombosis diagnosis ended his campaign. The games there felt like a brief escape and a chance to build something.
This time, the Spurs arrive as the reigning Western Conference champions after an opening-night loss to the Oklahoma City Thunder. And Devin Vassell isn’t spending much time thinking about the crowd’s reaction to Durant.
“I don’t care,” Vassell said, asked what reaction he expected for Durant’s introduction. “I’m worried about our team. I’m worried about us getting back on the right track."
Spurs coach Mitch Johnson made clear that Durant’s place in Austin is well established, but he also stressed that respect doesn’t have to distract from the task at hand.
“He’s held in high regard here, rightfully so,” Johnson said on Thursday. “He hasn’t slowed down. It’s a testament to the work he’s put in and his preparation.”
There’s a newer connection in the building too. Dylan Harper said Durant reached out to him during his development, and the two have kept a mutual respect over time, even if game week didn’t call for any extra contact.
“He was kind of someone, while I was going through my process, that he’d reach out,” Harper said. “I feel like we’re both going to go out there and give it our all.”
Durant sees the matchup clearly from his side as well. He pointed to the Spurs’ depth, versatility and the challenge of dealing with Wembanyama.
"They've got one of the most unique players that ever touched the floor," Durant said. "He can obviously shoot the basketball," Durant said. "He makes plays on the defensive side of the ball, (and) does small, intangible things ... we got our work cut out for us."
And when Durant walks back onto the court in Austin, he already has a pretty good idea what the reception will sound like.
"Cheers," Durant said, almost laughing. "I mean, what else (are) they going to do?”
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