Kevin Durant’s Ideal ‘NBA 2K’ Starting Five Features Two Mavs (But One You Wouldn’t Expect)

With the release of NBA 2K25, fans have been able to get a little head start on the 2024-25 season. While a lot of attention is paid to the MyPlayer career mode, plenty of fans use the game to build their ideal roster for their favorite team.

Kevin Durant recently sat down with Sauce Gardner to do battle in 2K, and Durant got asked how he would build his ideal team in the game. The “in the game” aspect is important, because video game basketball is not real life basketball, but KD’s starting five did have a surprising inclusion.

Durant, as one would expect, put himself on there, a long with LeBron James. Those are not controversial, and neither was his selection of Joel Embiid at center. At guard, he went with a pair of Dallas Mavs, but not the two you’d expect, as he put Luka Doncic and Klay Thompson, not Kyrie Irving, together.

Thompson is the only real stunner, but in the game Thompson’s two-way versatility is still a benefit and the game is perhaps a bit kinder to Klay when it comes to consistently finding his best level. As KD notes, Thompson’s size at 6’7 earns him the nod, as Durant clearly wants as tall a lineup as possible with no one under 6’7 on his squad. Still, not opting for Stephen Curry, Kyrie Irving, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, or his Suns teammate Devin Booker is a bit of a surprise, but KD clearly has a ton of love and respect for his former teammate in Golden State.