Kevin Durant Pays Tribute To His Mom During MVP Speech

“The way a man treats his mother…”

Oklahoma City Thunder player Kevin Durant was honored with his very first NBA Most Valuable Player award on Tuesday. While the story of KD finally taking home the award after coming in second place to LeBron James in voting for the past three years is important to note, the bigger story was his extremely emotional acceptance speech.

Kevin fought back tears as he thanked his teammates, one by one, for their hand in his success, but he couldn’t fight the waterworks when it came time to thank his mother, Wanda.

In his heartfelt speech, the 25-year-old recounted his humble beginnings growing up in PG County, Maryland where he, his brother and his mother moved around from place to place before getting their own apartment. He also revealed how much she sacrificed for them, calling her “the real MVP” for making sure they had food to eat even when it meant she would have to go to bed hungry.

I don’t think you know what you did. You had my brother when you were 18 years old. Three years later I came out. The odds were stacked against us. Single parent with two boys by the time you were 21 years old.

Everybody told us we weren’t supposed to be here. We moved from apartment to apartment by ourselves. One of the best memories I have is when we moved into our first apartment. No bed, no furniture, and we just all sat in the living room and just hugged each other because we thought we made it.

When something good happens to you, I don’t know about you guys, but I tend to look back to what brought me here. You wake me up in the middle of the night in the summer times. Making me run up a hill. Making me do push-ups. Screaming at me from the sidelines at my games at eight or nine years old.

We weren’t supposed to be here. You made us believe. You kept us off the street, put clothes on our backs, food on the table. When you didn’t eat, you made sure we ate. You went to sleep hungry. You sacrificed for us. You’re the real MVP.