Kevin Durant opens ‘The Durant Center’ after-school educational facility in his hometown

Sports Illustrated | Golden State small forward Kevin Durant on Wednesday opened “The Durant Center” – a new facility in his hometown of Prince George County, Maryland, that is aimed at helping low-income and underserved students enroll and graduate from college.

The after-school center commenced with an inaugural class of 69 local students, who will be offered various academic, financial and social-emotional resources to aid college and career development. The center was created in partnership with College Track, an organization that uses a 10-year plan to help students from their early teenage years through college graduation by providing tutoring services and funds for college scholarships.

The 9-time NBA All-Star has pledged US$10 million to College Track over the program’s first decade. Durant decided to collaborate with the organization after visiting a College Track center in Oakland, California.

The Durant Center will open as home to College Track’s first site on the East Coast.

“It wasn’t so much that he didn’t want to do something in the Bay,” Elissa Salas, College Track’s chief executive said. “But he was looking to really invest really deeply in his home community.”

“The full circle stuff that you dream about,” Durant told the Washington Post. “So many people that meant so much to me at that time, and to see my name on the building. Hopefully that inspires kids in the area.”

The new Durant Center. PHOTO/Getty Images

The education center that now bears his name isn’t Durant’s only hometown investment. The 30-year-old superstar has also donated nearly US$60,000 for new basketball courts as Seat Pleasant Recreation Center, where he learned to play basketball as a child.

Between his coaches and Taras Brown, who oversaw the Rec Center during Durant’s childhood, the 2-time NBA Champion had people to look up to and learn from. Durant said giving that to other low-income children from his area was his goal in creating the center and investing in new courts.

“At an early age, I started to realize how much this [basketball] will alter and change my life,” Durant told the Mercury News. “I had so many people that made sure I was focused, determined and disciplined with the task at hand. I wanted other kids to have the same type of every-day discipline.”