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May 2--BELLEVUE -- Sporting a sincere smile while holding an award he quietly coveted and finally received on Thursday morning, Seattle SuperSonics rookie Kevin Durant still understands one thing -- more work remains if he wants to become one of the best in the game.
And even as a throng of admirers surrounded him as he was presented the NBA Rookie of the Year award at host T-Mobile's headquarters, Durant -- wiser than his 19 years -- focused on the future.
"I've worked hard my whole life, and now it's starting to pay off," Durant said. "But I know this is the beginning of things to come -- bigger and better things -- first for my team and for myself. But I've got to continue to work.
"I just want to continue to work hard this summer and next year become a better player to help this team out. I think point-blank all we want to do is win. And if we all come back better players, we can do that."
Durant finished well ahead of runner-up Al Horford of Atlanta, totaling 90 first-place votes and 545 points overall compared to Horford's 30 first-place votes and 390 points. Luis Scola finished third with five first-place votes and 146 points overall. Durant was selected by a panel of 125 writers and broadcasters.
"He's a great teammate," Seattle general manager Sam Presti said of Durant. "He's humble, and he's got a commitment to getting better every day and doesn't really let things influence him, and in the NBA that's an easy thing to have happen.
"So we're very fortunate, and we're going to build with him."
Horford called and congratulated Durant on Wednesday after learning Durant had won the award, becoming the first Sonic to win the honor.
However, Horford's coach, Mike Woodson, wasn't as graceful, telling a reporter on Wednesday that Horford was snubbed.
"It's a travesty and it's not right," Woodson said before his team's Game 5 loss to Boston, according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. "He should have shared it, if not gotten it outright. And I don't want to hear about us not being on TV or anything like that. It doesn't matter. It's what this kid has done for this team."
Horford put up good numbers as a rookie, averaging 10.1 points and 9.7 rebounds and helped the Hawks return to the NBA playoffs for the first time in nine years.
But Durant dealt with similar comments from critics all season and emerged a better player because of it. Some NBA observers, including former NBA All-Star Charles Barkley, lauded Horford over Durant, saying that Durant was a shining star on a bad team who didn't rebound enough and took too many bad shots.
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