OAKLAND -- P.J. Carlesimo, who coached Kevin Durant's rookie season in the NBA, used to have an office high above the practice court. One of the cool features was an expansive window that allowed him to oversee the action.
But on otherwise desolate nights, when the court lights flickered on to the thump-thump-thump of a basketball, the panorama was hardly necessary.
"I didn't have to look up," Carlesimo said this week. "I knew who it was. It was always Kevin."
It's still Kevin. Even after four scoring titles, seven All-Star appearances and, this week, a $53.5 million, two-year contract from the Warriors. As soon as his introductory press conference was over Thursday, he traded his fancy suit for his practice gear to launch some 3-pointers in his new home. Superman doesn't change in a phone booth that fast.
The Golden State Warriors' Kevin Durant is photographed on Thursday, July 7, 2016, in Oakland, Calif. (Aric Crabb/Bay Area News Group) ( ARIC CRABB )
The 6-foot-9 forward talked mostly about basketball in his new home, so Durant didn't delve much into how he got here. His new Bay Area fans heard nothing of the single mother who used to roust him from bed to make him do push-ups. Or the murdered coach he honors with every game. Or the tattoos he keeps hidden from view. Or the $1 million he donated to the Red Cross after tornados ripped through an Oklahoma City suburb.
But the best way to explain Kevin Durant might be to point out how upset the Thunder fans are now.
It's because they loved him so much then.
"Durant was our first major league superstar, the first professional sports idol in a state that had spent time worshipping the (Oklahoma State) Cowboys and (Oklahoma) Sooners," said Mike Sherman, the sports editor of The Oklahoman.
"And the honeymoon, in spite of some tough times, never really ended -- until yesterday."
Durant choosing the Warriors over the Thunder isn't a basketball transaction: It's a break-up after a long-term relationship. The NBA's four-time leading scorer arrives on the rebound.
"That call to Oklahoma City was the hardest thing I've ever had to do in my life. Tears were shed," Durant said Thursday, in explaining his decision to join the Warriors.
"But this is a new journey for me, testing the unknown, and I trusted it. I trusted my gut. I trusted my instincts. It's the unpopular decision, but I can live with it."
Durant, 27, embraced OKC as his adoptive hometown when his original team, the Seattle SuperSonics, moved the franchise to the Great Plains after his rookie season.
But his roots are in Prince George's County, near Washington D.C. That's where he was raised in part by his grandmother, Barbara, who dutifully made Durant peanut butter sandwiches and picked him up from school.
The heavy lifting was done by his mother, Wanda, who had two boys by age 21. For an idea of what Wanda meant to Durant, track down the clip of Durant's acceptance speech for winning the 2013-14 MVP award. In a tearfully emotional tribute, Durant recalled the family's days going from place to place.
Golden State Warriors' Draymond Green (23) loses control of the ball while driving against Oklahoma City Thunder's Kevin Durant (35) in the first quarter of Game 5 of the NBA Western Conference finals at Oracle Arena in Oakland, Calif., on Thursday, May 26, 2016. (Jose Carlos Fajardo/Bay Area News Group) ( JOSE CARLOS FAJARDO )
"One of the best memories I had was when we moved into our first apartment. No bed, no furniture and we just sat in the living room and just hugged each other," Durant said. "We thought we made it."
Durant recalled in that speech how Wanda would wake him up in the middle of the night to make him run a hill or do pushups as a way of teaching him dedication.
"You made us believe," Durant said. "You kept us off the street. You put clothes on our backs, food on the table. When you didn't eat, you made sure we ate. You went to sleep hungry. You sacrificed for us. You're the real MVP."
Durant and his father, Wayne Pratt, had a rockier road. A father of two by age 23, Pratt didn't feel ready for the responsibilities, so he deserted the family around the time of Durant's first birthday.
"I felt like I was immature, selfish, I was young. I didn't know what I was getting myself into," Pratt told The Washington Post in 2012. "But my sons helped me realize how important it was to be in their lives by always wanting me to be around."
The Post story chronicled how it took Pratt nearly a decade to seek forgiveness from his sons and work out a decent relationship with Wanda.
But there Pratt was Thursday at the Warriors practice facility, sitting in the front row of his son's press conference and beaming when general manager Bob Myers said of Durant: "We love high-character people and you can't find a better embodiment of that than the guy sitting next to me."
That line made Wayne's ears perk up.
"That's the most important part, as a parent," he said later. "The character after you play is how you're going to be judged. Basketball takes care of itself. It's how you present yourself for your family and for your community that's more important."
Durant loved basketball at an early age and, by the time he was a senior at Montrose Christian High in Maryland, he averaged 23.6 points 10.2 rebounds and was a selected as first-team All-American by USA Today and Parade Magazine.
He spent one season at the University of Texas, time enough to win the Adolph Rupp Trophy, the Naismith Award and the Wooden Award -- becoming the first-ever freshman in NCAA history to win any of those awards.
It was during this time that Durant also began wearing No. 35. And for a player suddenly accused of disloyalty, it's worth noting the story behind the number.
Durant wears it because of Charles Craig, the first basketball coach he ever had. Durant met Craig when the player was a fledgling 8-year-old hoopster at Maryland recreation center. It was Craig who taught him the basics of the game and spent hours with the kid on the court and off.
Craig died April, 30, 2005, the victim of multiple gunshot wounds.
He was 35.
"I just want as many people as I can to know why I wear it and the significance of the number," Durant told The Oklahoman in 2010. "That's my goal is to get him out there and keep his name alive."
The Sonics -- before they became the Thunder -- took Durant with the No. 2 overall pick in the 2007 draft. That's when Carlesimo placed a call to Rick Barnes, who had coached Durant at Texas.
"Rick could not stop gushing about his talent. He went on and on and on," Carlesimo said in a phone interview Wednesday. "But at the end, he said, 'As good as a player he is, he's an even better person.' And that's about as good a description as you can get."
Carlesimo, now an ESPN analyst, knows all about temperamental talents. (For example, there was that time Latrell Sprewell tried to choke him while they were with the Warriors). But Durant, even as a rookie, arrived almost too good to be true.
"I remember telling our beat writers after just a few summer camp practices that this kid was going to be an all-star and maybe MVP a few times," Carlesimo said. "They looked at me like I had two heads. But I said, 'If you could just come watch a one-hour practice, you'd see his approach, his coachability and his talent.'"
Carlesimo lasted only a few games into Durant's second season before getting fired, but Durant has now made seven consecutive All-Star games and, last season, became the first player since Michael Jordan to average more than 28 points, 8 rebounds and 5 assists in a season.
Until his controversial decision to leave as a free agent, about the only flap Durant endured while in Oklahoma City came when he was photographed with his jersey taken off. Some fans were aghast to learn that their clean-cut star had previously hidden tattoos all over his torso (mostly bible verses or images of his past).
Mostly, though, he was the city's favorite son. In May of 2013, a tornado rampaged through Moore, Oklahoma, "and before anybody could really start digging out," Sherman recalled, "there's Kevin walking through the neighborhoods and donating $1 million to the Red Cross."
Durant's fairly tale ending in Oklahoma City never materialized. The Thunder never won a championship with him as their star and they squandered their chance this year by blowing a 3-1 series lead to the Warriors in the Western Conference Finals.
Durant stressed Wednesday that the decision was agonizing because of his relationship with Oklahoma City.
"Those nine years, you can't erase," he said. "That love doesn't fade. Those memories don't erase. It's always going to be a part of who I am, but this next step in my life, I want to conquer it and get better every single day."
