The goal of every NBA scout is to recognize the most talented players that could turn into stars in the league. Sometimes such players are a generational talents. Antonio Williams, former scout for the Phoenix Suns, once had a task to scout Kevin Durant when he was playing at Texas.
Williams remembered that despite the fact that KD had a poor shooting night when he scouted him, the future NBA champion impressed him immensely. To the extent that the scout thought he saw the best player in the whole country.
“When I was at ESPN, I was also working for Marty and Ryan Blake in NBA scouting, and I was working out of the northeast region… So I went to an event in New York, and I saw a player, and the player was 3 for 16 in the game or 3 for 15, something like that — and the only thing I wrote in my notes was: I just watched the best player in the country. It was Kevin Durant when he was at Texas,” Williams recalled on the newest episode of 1-ON-1 with Basketball Network.
“I’m watching him and I’m like, nobody can bother his shot because he’s seven feet tall, he’s creating space, he’s doing it efficiently, he’s getting everywhere he wants to get. He’s just not making the shots today. And just how easily he was doing it, it was like, man this guy’s the best player in the country.”
