Durant Sounds Off on White House Snub

The NBA's reigning scoring champion, who grew up in the Washington D.C. area, says President Obama forgot to invite him.

Thursday, May 26th 2011, 11:54 am

By: News On 6

Originally Published: Aug 11, 2010 3:3 PM CDT

Oklahoma Sports Staff

NEW YORK -- Following Team USA's practice at John Jay College in New York, Oklahoma City Thunder forward Kevin Durant admitted he was surprised to find out he hadn't been invited to an event in his old stomping grounds.

Durant, who was born and raised in the Washington D.C. area, was not one of roughly fifteen past and present basketball players invited to play a game of pickup basketball with President Barack Obama at the White House.

Among the attendees were LeBron James, Kobe Bryant, Dwyane Wade, Carmelo Anthony, Chris Paul and even his Thunder teammate Etan Thomas received an invitation and attended -- Durant did not.

"I didn't even know it was going on until somebody told me on Twitter," Durant told FanHouse.com. "I would have loved to be there. I'm from D.C., and I never had a chance to go the White House. It would have been cool. But there's always next year. Hopefully, they'll do it again and I'll be invited."

"It would have been cool to go up there and play on the court and just to meet the President since I've been living there my whole life and never got a chance to do it ... Especially him being the first African-American president [and] being a big basketball fan. It'd have been cool for me to see and a great experience."

The reigning scoring champion didn't say anything about having hard feelings. Instead, he seems motivated by the snub.

"I've got to continue to keep showing people that I can play a little bit,'' Durant said.