The Kevin Durant factor.

It is a rare thing when you are in the presence of greatness.

It's rarer when you are in the presence of greatness balanced with humility.  

You get that with Kevin Durant of the Oklahoma City Thunder.  

A lot has been said about him in the past few days.  He recently won a well-deserved NBA's Most Valuable Player award for his performance on the basketball court.  To people who live here he had that title for at least two years, and likely since the Oklahoma City Thunder set up camp in 2008.  

There are superstars in sport, some of whom are arrogant about their abilities and are well-versed in the art of self-promotion and then there are those who are genuinely humbled and are thankful for their skills and give credit not only to God, their families, and their teammates, and they realize that though they are vastly rich and famous they give back to the people who put them there.

To that end, Kevin Durant earned the MVP of the state of Oklahoma nearly a year before the NBA conferred the title on him.  

Cynics would argue that he "had" to, because of NBA policy or whatever, but it was inspiring to see Durant and his teammates out there in Moore last May, among the obliterated homes and walking among the damage with true awe in their heart of the total devastation with genuine concern on their faces.  Indeed, it was a team effort of the entire Thunder organization, but when Durant gave money out of his pocket to help match his team donation and that on the NBA the endearment of the state to the man is complete.

The Thunder, at this writing is in the semi-finals of the 2014 NBA Playoffs.  They are on the road to a possible Finals appearance.  They've been there once before but they fell short.  It's presumptive to say that they'll be there this season, but that's the basketball part of the argument.  Kevin Durant is the exception to the rule in major league sports and though it would be awesome to see KD and the Thunder hoist a Championship trophy he is already has the designation of champion to Oklahoma.

Photo credits: Richard Rowe.