Kevin Durant’s emotional moment on camera has taken social media ablaze.
Now, Frances Tiafoe, tennis’ world No.18, is the newest star to react to the viral clip of the NBA legend.
Durant teared up discussing his experience playing within the Olympics for Team USA in a sneak peak of Netflix’s documentary series Court of Gold.
The 2-time NBA champion explained how he was struck by the unity that Olympic basketball creates and the way the game has saved his life.
“Then I looked in the gang, there’s 27,000 people from all walks of life, all different countries, coming together for basketball. … It’s incredible to see that, you already know what I mean?” Durant said while fighting back tears.
“As much as I can bring us together that way, that’s what I attempt to do, I come from neighborhoods where people don’t even consult with one another.
“A lot hate on the earth, too, people get to begin laughing and joking for the sport of ball. It’s cool to me, so it gets me emotional, dawg.”
Last summer’s Paris Olympics saw Durant win his fourth gold medal and surpass Lisa Leslie as Team USA’s all-time leading scorer.
The previous NBA MVP also said basketball has “brought me and my family out of numerous bulls***,” a reference to the financial struggle he was brought up in to now, in a profession that has seen him earn just over $400 million.
America’s world No.4 in tennis, Tiafoe, reacted to the clip of Durant’s tears and gave an easy two-word response.
“Felt this,” the 27-year-old wrote on social media.
The three-time ATP champion can be one other athlete who has opened up on the struggle of his upbringing.
Tiafoe is the son of immigrants from Sierra Leone and has said he used to live in a tennis center storage room and was recurrently insulted about being poor while training as an adolescent.
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“The circumstances in my life have definitely modified,” said Tiafoe last yr in an interview with Andscape.
“But those poor, poor jokes back then really hurt. It made you’re feeling, at the back of your mind, that you just weren’t cut from the identical cloth.”
Each Durant and Tiafoe at the moment are elite American athletes, and in the method have modified their lives.
It wasn’t way back the pair linked up at one among Tiafoe’s matches and Durant was filled with praise for the tennis star.
“He’s just bringing, initially, that energy from this area,” Durant said. “He’s representing right, so we’re all pleased with him.”
Tiafoe and Durant are currently within the midst of a busy period for his or her respective sports. Each will hope to win big in the approaching months.
