GQ names Kevin Durant “Champion of the Year”

GQ just named Warriors’ star Kevin Durant as their “Champion of the Year.” He joins Colin Kaepernick (Citizen of the year), Stephen Colbert (Bad Hombre of the Year), and Gal Gadot (Wonder Woman of the Year) as GQ’s standout “New American Heroes” of 2017.

Durant, who capped a remarkable first season with the Warriors by winning a championship to go along with a Finals MVP trophy, was nothing short of spectacular in 2017. Sure, he got caught with some burner twitter accounts, and sure he took a good amount of grief from NBA fans for fleeing OKC, but all in all no other player in professional sports had quite as large an impact on 2017 as Durant.

With his departure from OKC and subsequent success with the Warriors, he single-handedly swung the balance of power in the NBA for the foreseeable future, igniting trades and panic moves throughout the basketball kingdom. He rose to the pinnacle of his profession by winning his first ring. His actions both on and off the court made news on a nightly basis.

While his actions in the political sphere might not have had the same resonance and power as fellow “Man of the Year” Colin Kaepernick, Durant found himself thrust into the national spotlight when he and his Warriors teammates had to deal with that stupid Trump fiasco. By choosing these four recipients, GQ has obviously laid out their hand. Kaepernick, Colbert, Gadot, and Durant have all been clear in their stances towards the issues plaguing us these days.

GQ dropped their first headline article today, profiling Kaepernick. The cover story on Colbert drops tomorrow, Gadot’s drops Wednesday, and they’ll cap it off with Durant’s feature on Thursday.

From GQ:

Writer Zach Baron went all the way to Delhi, India, to hang with the NBA MVP. Durant sums up the Golden State Warriors’ winning season and touches on that game-winning shot, LeBron James, Jay-Z’s 4:44, those tweets, and getting heckled by Rihanna. Come back Thursday for Kevin Durant's cover story.

We can’t wait! Sounds like a fantastic read.

Everyone thought 2016 was a bad year. Turns out 2017 was even worse. But, if you’re like me, you took some small solace in moments like this:

Or this:

Or this:

Congrats Kevin. You deserve everything.