Updates: On August 7, Team USA Men's Basketball defeated France 87-82 to win its fourth Olympic gold medal in a row. They knocked off Australia in the semifinals, 97-78, and Spain in the quarterfinals, 95-81, to reach the final game. Kevin Durant paced them with 29 points on 9-18 shooting vs. France, 23 points on 10-19 shooting vs. Australia and 29 points on 10-17 shooting vs. Spain. He averaged 27 ppg in the last three games.
Durant and Team USA charged back after getting off to a slow start in the Summer Games. They split four exhibition games (losing to Australia and Nigeria), then fell to France in the opening game. They then defeated Iran and the Czech Republic to advance to the quarterfinals.
Durant averaged just 15 ppg on 41% shooting in the first three games against France, Iran and Czech Republic. This was well below his 26.9 ppg and 53.7% field-goal average in the 2020-21 NBA seaason with the Brooklyn Nets.
It was a big turnaround for Durant after the USA loss to France on July 25 when he scored only 10 points due to being in early foul trouble. ESPN called it "perhaps the worst game of his storied Olympic career."
Prior to leaving for Tokyo, some wondered how Durant would comply with World Anti-Doping Agency rules, which allow for CBD but not THC in cannabis. While track star Sha'Carri Richardson was barred from running after failing a drug test for THC in June, soccer champion Megan Rapinoe was able to continue her CBD regimen without any punishment. Rapinoe and Team USA Women's Soccer took the bronze medal in Tokyo. Why does WADA have different policies when it comes to two intoxicating chemicals from the same plant?
Kevin Durant: "I just think [cannabis] should be taken off the banned substances list. It's not harmful to anybody."
That's what Durant, a daily user, would like to know. "Everyone on my team drinks coffee every day," he said on All That Smoke in 2020. "The guys go out for wine after games or have a drink every now and then. Marijuana should be on the same level. I just think it should be taken off the banned substances list. It's not harmful to anybody. It only can help and enhance and do good things."
Sportswriter Kevin Sullivan says about Durant: “He smokes even more weed than you would think. I was at his house at one o’clock in the morning. The entire place just reeked. He doesn’t have a girlfriend. He doesn’t go on crazy vacations. He doesn’t do anything other than hoop. Like nothing. He’s boring as hell. So going out to him is just blazing.”
In 2014, a photo of Durant smoking a hookah went viral. In 2015, he was photographed with a prescription bottle of medical cannabis.
The two-time NBA champion with the Warriors has also won the league MVP and Rookie of the Year awards. He's averaged 25 ppg in 13 seasons in the NBA and played on the last three Team USA Men's Basketball "Dream Teams" - London in 2012, Rio de Janiero in 2016 and Tokyo in 2021.
In 2019, Durant's company Thirty Five Ventures linked up with Canopy Growth in Canada. He's also an investor in Dutchie, a software compamy that caters to the cannbis industry.
