When talking about Kevin Durant, there’s a real sense of mentorship, connection, and mutual respect. It wasn’t just about style of play — it was about a personal bond built behind the scenes, long before KD became a household name. “I used to be his mentor,” said Gervin. “The NBA had a mentoring program early on in his career when he was with Seattle and I went up there a few times and sat with him, ate dinner, talked to him, talked with him about basketball and also did it with him when he was down there in OKC, you know? So I had a personal relationship with KD. People would always ask, Man, who reminds you of you? And I say, ‘He does in a sense because of the effectiveness in scoring.’ But I tell ‘em, ‘He doesn’t score like ME!’ [Kevin’s] tall and slender and I think that’s where people make the comparison but our abilities to score totally different. The effectiveness is the same. We BOTH get it done.”