An emotional Kevin Durant thanked God and his family last night at the NBA ceremony that honored him as the league's Most Valuable Player.
In his 26-minute acceptance speech, the Oklahoma City Thunder small forward expressed love for the people most important to him.
"First of all, I would like to thank God for changing my life," Durant began.
"He let me really realize what life is all about. Basketball is just a platform in order for me to inspire people, and I realize that."
Durant then described his childhood in a small county outside of Washington D.C., where his mother raised him and an older brother by herself.
"Single parent with two boys by the time you were 21 years old," he said, crying.
"Everybody told us we weren't supposed to be here. We moved from apartment to apartment by ourselves. One of the best memories I had was when we moved into our first apartment. No bed, no furniture, and we just all sat in a room and just hugged each other. We thought we'd made it."
Durant also credits his mother, Wanda Pratt, for not letting him give up basketball when he was a freshman in high school.
"I was going to quit, and be a so-called street guy," he told USA Today back in 2012. "[My mother] could see it in my eyes and she pulled me to the side one day, and she slapped it out of me. She talked to me, gave me some good words and kind of revved me up a little bit, so ever since then I've been on the same path."
The MVP averaged 32 points, 7.4 rebounds, and 5.5 assists this season, and leads his team into Game 2 of the Western Conference playoffs tonight.
The Oklahoma City Thunder will face the Los Angeles Clippers in Oklahoma on May 7 at 9:30 p.m. ET on TNT.
Watch Durant's NBA MVP speech below:
