Kevin Durant has lofty praise for Tre Johnson: "He's conducting himself like a pro already"

Wearing the lofty expectations of a top one-and-done prospect at the University of Texas is no easy task. Just ask Kevin Durant.

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Durant, the 2007 unanimous player of the year with the Longhorns, a two-time NBA champion, 15-time All-Star, and six-time first-team All-NBA selection, spent just one season in college and spent it playing for Rick Barnes at Texas. The No. 2 recruit in his class behind Greg Oden, Durant captivated the attention of the nation few Longhorn basketball players have.

Tre Johnson‘s expectations are not the exact same as Durant’s but considering his current standing as the top scorer in the Southeastern Conference and the offensive cornerstone for the 2024-25 Longhorns, Durant understands what Johnson’s tasks and roles have been during the Dallas-area product’s one-year stopover in Austin.

And so far, Durant thinks very highly of what Johnson has accomplished.

“It looks like Tre has got it handled. He’s conducting himself like a pro already,” Durant said Wednesday. “You can tell. When I was at practice yesterday, his work habits are already at that level of focus that it needs to be at in order for you to be a great player for a long time. Just keep doing what he’s doing. He’s going to learn more about the game with more experience.”

Durant is in town as the Phoenix Suns are set to take on the San Antonio Spurs on Thursday at the Moody Center, part of two games the Spurs are playing in the home of the Longhorns.

During his time in Austin, Durant stopped by the Texas basketball practice facility not just to work on his own game, but to see what his old team is up to.

Still a college basketball fan (he not only watches Texas men’s and women’s games, but also Tennessee games featuring his former head coach in Barnes), Durant knows the next stretch of games is crucially important for the Longhorns. Conference play is winding down, NCAA Tournament bids are at stake, and attention around the nation is starting to focus on top players like Johnson.

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— Texas Men’s Basketball (@TexasMBB) February 18, 2025

For Johnson, who is averaging 19.8 points per game and has scored 24 or more points in three of the last five contests, these games are going to be revealing. They were for Durant, after all.

In the final five games of Durant’s lone season in Austin, the Longhorns were 4-1 with Durant averaging 26.2 points, 11.4 rebounds, and 1.8 blocks. He shot 48 percent from the field, 61 percent from three, and 83 percent from the line. That boosted Durant to a Big 12 Tournament run where he averaged 30.7 points and 10.3 boards per game, falling just short of the title in overtime of the championship game versus Kansas.

Unfortunately for Durant, his NCAA Tournament run lasted just two games after that end-of-season flourish. But those were the moments that crafted his answer when talking about what Johnson needed to key in on in the coming couple of weeks for Texas.

“These last few games of conference play is huge because they’re meaningful,” Durant said. “They’re always going to be late-game type of games. You learn the most about your team and about yourself when you’re playing critical games like that.”

Over the past five games, Johnson has posted 22.8 points, 5.2 boards, 4.2 assists, and 1.0 steals per contest although Texas has gone just 2-3. However, the final five games feature a small step down in difficulty for the Horns. As previously mentioned, one team on the remaining slate, Mississippi State, has a .500 record in conference. Every other team left other than the Bulldogs, South Carolina, Arkansas, Georgia, and Oklahoma, are below the Longhorns in the SEC standings.

It’s a chance for Johnson to show before he heads to the NBA draft lottery that he has some parts of his game that resemble Durant’s, something that Durant himself acknowledged.

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“Probably just the mentality of wanting to be great,” Durant said. “The work ethic. That will to win. You can tell he’s got that determination to go out there and win. He’s passionate about the game of basketball. I see some similarities there. He’s similar to a lot of players in that regard. In his approach to the game, I think we’re similar in that area.”