What Does Brooklyn Nets’ Kevin Durant Have In Common With These Other 5 NBA Stars?
Kevin Durant, LaMarcus Aldridge, Tristian Thompson, Myles Turner, Mo Bamba, and Jarrett Allen all have something in common.
All of them are either top draft picks, NBA All-Stars, NBA Champions or have massive contracts.
What's the one common dominator?
They all played basketball in college at the University of Texas.
That's right, Texas sure has produced some solid NBA big-men.
Some Background:
Durant: The future first ballot Hall of Famer played for the University of Texas during the 2006-07 season and averaged 25.8 points per game. He was drafted by the Seattle Super Sonics (now the OKC Thunder) with the 2nd overall pick in the 2007 NBA Draft. He's a two-time NBA Champion, 2014 NBA MVP and an eleven-time NBA All-Star.
Aldridge: The 7x time NBA All-Star played for the University of Texas two seasons from 2004-06. He averaged 15.0 points and 9.2 rebounds, 1.4 steals and 2.0 blocks per game during his second season, and was the second overall pick in the 2006 NBA Draft.
Turner: He was the 11th overall pick in the 2015 NBA Draft after spending the 2014-15 season in Austin, Texas. He averaged 10.1 points, 6.5 rebounds and 2.6 blocks per game at Texas. In the NBA he has led the league in blocks per game two different seasons (2019, 2021).
Thompson: He played the 2010-11 season at the University of Texas and averaged 13.1 points, 7.8 rebounds and 2.4 blocks per game. He was the fourth overall pick in the 2011 NBA Draft and won the 2016 NBA Championship with the Cleveland Cavaliers.
Allen: He played at Texas during the 2016-17 season and averaged 13.4 points, 8.4 rebounds and 1.5 blocks per game. He was the 22nd overall pick in the 2017 NBA Draft, and has a $100 million contract with the Cleveland Cavaliers (see Tweet below from ESPN's Adrian Wojnarowski on August 2).
Bamba: He played at Texas during the 2017-18 season and averaged 12.9 points, 10.5 rebounds and 3.7 blocks per game. The Orlando Magic drafted him with the sixth overall pick in the 2018 NBA Draft.
