Kevin Durant Rallies Players During Lockout
While the NBA lockout continued past its 100th day, Kevin Durant successfully brought some of the league’s biggest names together in a sold-out Oklahoma city game.
Durant bought Carmelo Anthony, Lebron James and Chris Paul to Oklahoma City to play against one another on two teams for 13,000 fans inside the Cox Convention Center on Sunday.
Durant led his blue team to a win with a triple-double on the stat sheet for the charity game, with 42 points, 26 rebounds and 11 assists. However, Chris Paul said the 176-171 game was more than just a show for charity.
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"As you see in these games that we're playing, we love to play the game. We're going to find a way to play -- any way possible,” Paul said, according to ESPN. “We want to just keep giving our fans the opportunity to see us because if not for the fans, we're not who we are."
Paul said the fans deserved a season and stressed the importance in continuing to find a solution to the lockout.
"So we just want them to know that we still want to keep working toward a deal because it's not just about us,” Paul was quoted saying in ESPN reports. “It's about the fans, it's about the employees, all the people that make our game happen. We want to play -- just make sure everyone understands that."
Durant expressed his gratitude to players who played the game for fans, despite the lockout taking place and lack of money being offered.
“All the players who came here didn't have to. They sacrificed their time to come play the game,” Durant said after the game. “We just wanted to show the fans we still love them and we still continue to play the game no matter what.”
