Kevin Durant has made the news again. The reigning MVP of the National Basketball Association has been sidelined for first 6 – 8 weeks of this season as he recovers from foot surgery. During those 6 – 8 weeks, Durant will miss anywhere from 20-25 games. He has only missed 16 games throughout his entire 7-year career to this point. Durant averaged 32 points, 7 rebounds and 5 assists in 81 games last season and has played the most minutes in the league since 2007. Simply put, the man has grown accustomed to playing a lot of basketball on the highest level. He is not accustomed, however, to being on the sideline for any reason. So how does a super-star athlete handle a disappointing injury?
“It’s definitely a different experience for me,” Durant said after his surgery. “I’ve never been injured before, but [my team] has been great to get me the best surgeon, and rehab has been going well so far.”
“I feel like Nick Saban, just rolling around in my scooter from court to court giving advice and trying to help out as much as I can,” he said. “I’m looking at the positive side of it. It’s a win-win because I’m learning a lot about the game while I’m out, and my teammates are getting lots of opportunities because there are a lot of minutes out there to help the team… I’m just blessed it happened early in the season where I can get past it, and hopefully by December I’ll be ready to play… It was unexpected but, going through so much in my life already, I knew this was a bump in the road I had to get past. It’s really all good, to be honest.”
A few weeks ago in the Wednesday night Adult II class we discussed what it means to have a good attitude in a bad situation. We discussed Paul’s attitude while under house arrest in Rome and noted that Paul chose to see only the positives in his situation rather than focus on the negatives. While Durant’s situation is exponentially less dire than Paul’s, Durant’s attitude is very similar.
Whatever the situation may be in our lives (whether significant or small) we would all do well to remember Paul’s attitude from Philippians 4:11-13, “… I have learned in whatever situation I am to be content. I know how to be brought low, and I know how to abound. In any and every circumstance, I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need. I can do all things through him who strengthens me.”
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