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Kevin Durant headlines NBA’s all-rookie team, but one moron didn’t put him on their team. Probably a Hawks writer.

The NBA announced on Thursday that former Longhorn Kevin Durant was the winner of the Eddie Gottlieb Trophy as the 2007-08 T-Mobile NBA Rookie of the Year. He’s the first Longhorn to ever win the award.

Durant received 90 out of 125 first-place votes finishing comfortably ahead of Atlanta’s Al Horford and Houston’s Luis Scola. Somehow five sportswriters didn’t even put Durant in their top two. Kevin average 20.3 points (7.6 points more than any other rookie), 4.4 rebounds, and 2.4 assists per game in his rookie season.

Congratulations Kevin!

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This commercial looks like it’s at least a few months old, but I saw it this weekend for the first time during the Spurs/Suns playoff game. It’s an ad for NBAStore.com and features Kevin Durant slowly walking down the stadium tunnel taking off one jersey after another.

Watch the commercial below:

Kevin starts wearing a Boys & Girls Club jersey, takes it off to reveal the jersey of the mighty Drew-Freeman Middle School Falcons, then his high school Montrose Christian, then the red and gold McDonald’s All-American uni, after that is his Nike Texas Longhorn #35, and finally as he nears the end of the tunnel he reveals his Seattle SuperSonics jersey. I guess next year they’ll have to update it again to add another one. Very cool commercial and always great to see Kevin wearing the burnt orange on national television.

Kevin Durant scores season-high 42 points in finale. Puts up his first double-double and finishes season with 20.3 scoring average.

I’m not sure what’s wrong with Mark Jackson, Jon Barry, or Jemele Hill were doing this last basketball season, but they certainly weren’t watching games. Those were the only three ESPN “experts” to not vote for Seattle Oklahoma City Sonics guard/forward Kevin Durant as their Rookie of the Year for the 2007-2008 season. Durant picked up 17 out of 20 votes while Al Horford received the other three. Here’s how the votes broke down:

Kevin Durant Marc Stein ESPN.com	Kevin Durant J.A. Adande ESPN.com	Kevin Durant John Hollinger ESPN.com	Kevin Durant Chris Sheridan ESPN.com
Kevin Durant Chris Broussard ESPN Mag	Kevin Durant Henry Abbott TrueHoop	Kevin Durant David Thorpe Scouts Inc.	Kevin Durant Chad Ford ESPN.com
Kevin Durant Jalen Rose ESPN	Al Horford Mark Jackson ABC	Al Horford Jon Barry ESPN	Kevin Durant Tim Legler ESPN
Al Horford Jemele Hill ESPN.com Page 2	Kevin Durant Scoop Jackson ESPN.com Page 2	Kevin Durant Chris Palmer ESPN Mag	Kevin Durant Dr. Jack Ramsay ESPN Radio
Kevin Durant Maurice Brooks ESPN.com	Kevin Durant Chris Ramsay ESPN.com	Kevin Durant Andrew Ayres ESPN.com	Kevin Durant Matt Wong ESPN.com

Kevin managed to live up to the incredible hype and only got better and better as the year went on. Definitely well deserved. He only spent one season at Texas but Kevin is proud to be a Longhorn and we’re proud of him. This is just the first of many honors he’ll pick up in the coming weeks. Congrats Kevin.

Former Horn Kevin Durant was nails for the Sonics last night in what was likely the team’s last game in Seattle. In a two overtime win over the Denver Nuggets, Durant had 37 points, 8 rebounds, and 9 assists but played an even bigger role than his career best stat line shows. With 22 seconds left in regulation he hit a huge 3-pointer to tie the game and send it to overtime. Then, with just five seconds left in the first overtime period he drained a 30-foot bomb to again tie up the game. It was a superstar shot.

Watch the second of his big shots below:

Great game and great clutch job by Kevin. His ability and willingness to take and hit shots like that are what separates him from other players. The Sonics are terrible and he started off trying to carry the team by taking tons of threes (yet was still Rookie of the Year frontrunner even then), but once he found his groove midseason he’s been playing at a much higher level. After several months hovering around 40% shooting, Durant made 53% of his shots in February.

With five games left in the season the Sonics are likely going to end up with one of the league’s three worst records and at worst a top five pick in the 2008 draft. If the Sonics can land another big time player (hopefully Memphis point guard Derrick Rose) with that pick they’ll have an incredibly young and gifted core to build on just up the road in Oklahoma City next year.

Kevin Durant plans to be back in Austin to work toward his degree this summer. Nice trend to have of former athletes coming back to finish up.

How Texas remained durable after Kevin Durant. Every single other player is better the season, especially Connor Atchley.

Rookie Watch: Which veterans should the rookie class study? ESPN’s David Thorpe thanks Durant should emulate Allen Iverson.

The Longhorns basketball team only has one commit for 2008 and none for 2009, but they’ve already picked up a huge commitment for 2010. Tristan Thompson, a sure five-star power forward from Newark St. Benedict’s Prep, gave Rick Barnes and assistant coach Rodney Terry his verbal commitment on Tuesday. Thompson is the fifth ranked sophomore in the country according to both Scout.com and RISE Magazine.

Texas fans can also thank former Horn Kevin Durant for helping reel in Thompson. The young man, originally from Canada, admitted he was a big Durant fan and loved the way Coach Barnes featured big, versatile front court players. Thompson is big, quick, and athletic and just sounds like he’s going to be a ton of fun to watch in burnt orange.

As always, verbal commitments are non-binding. As a sophomore Thompson will not be able to sign his letter of intent until November 2009.

Towson’s Tony Durant plays in shadow of younger brother. Sounds like a good kid doing the best with his chance and good big bro to Kevin.

Jerseys of Vince Young and Kevin Durant may be retired. It definitely should happen, but there’s no need to hurry.

Texas winning despite losing Durant. DJ Augustin hasn’t played up to his ability, but he’s still been able to carry the team.

Kevin Durant scores 26, knocks in game winner against Spurs. Sonics had lost 14 straight.

Kevin Durant interview on GameTap. March Madness, cold-blooded shooting, and Entourage.

Kevin Durant discusses notoriety and attention he has received since entering the NBA and joining the Sonics. Kevin is doing a great job adjusting.

Kevin Durant drains buzzer beating 3 in double OT for the win. Great long range shot with people in his face.

Kevin Durant and the Seattle SuperSonics are one step closer to moving to Oklahoma City. Sucks for him, guarantee he doesn’t re-sign when his contract is up.

He struggled in his NBA debut last night but Kevin Durant picked up his game against the Phoenix Suns in a loss. He still hasn’t quite found his shot yet but scored 27 points and helped keep Seattle in it until the fourth quarter. Highlights from ESPN are below:

He played more minutes than everyone else, made less than 50% of his shots, and jacked up six threes but showed flashes of what he’s going to be capable of very soon. You know he’s going to be big time when he drops 27 points on a very good team (with an admittedly suspect defense) and all anyone can talk about it is what he’s going to do when he’s really ready.

It looks like we’ll get to see the Sonics a lot on national television this season thanks to Kevin, but you’re going to need to be a night owl to watch them play. Their first two games started at about 9:30 pm Central so by halftime it was already way past my bedtime. The next few games will only by available on Fox Northwest but fans who get NBA TV will be able to see Durant and the Sonics against the Pistons on November 11th.

Kevin Durant to start tonight against Nuggets. Made it through shootaround on his bum ankle and should be good to go.

Greg Oden had microfracture surgery on his knee and will miss the entire season. Microfracture surgery is a very scary procedure, Blazer fans should be crossing their fingers he’s back next year.

Oden seems like a great kid, but this is what happens when you decide to pass on Kevin Durant to draft a 50-year-old man. This decision may be Bowie 2.0 for Portland.

Seattle Sonics likely moving to Oklahoma City according to team owner. Bad news for KD but good for us fans who can now go see him play.

Kevin Durant signs endorsement deal with Nike. Second richest ever, in the $50 - 60 million range.

Retire No. 10, NOW! Kevin Durant isn’t the only Longhorn who should have their number retired.

The Austin American-Statesman is reporting that the Longhorns will retire Kevin Durant’s #35 jersey. Durant only spent one season as a Longhorn but he put up one of the best single season’s in college basketball history for a freshman. Durant set numerous Big 12 records on his way to becoming the first freshman to ever win the Adolph Rupp Trophy, the Naismith Award, or the Wooden Award.

There’s some question among Texas fans whether one year on campus is enough to receive this exclusive honor. Coach Rick Barnes believes Durant deserves the honor. “Kevin meets the same criteria as T.J. (Ford),” Barnes said. “He was national player of the year.” Though Durant didn’t lead the Horns to an NCAA championship, he put a young team on his back and took them a lot further than most Texas fans were expecting when the season began.

Durant will be only the fourth Longhorn in any sport to have his number retired, joining Heisman winners Earl Campbell and Ricky Williams, Roger Clemens, and fellow Naismith winner T.J. Ford.

So what do you think? Should one incredible season be enough to have your jersey retired?

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