International players monopolize MVP due to high-intensity training? Durant starts to argue: They are deeply influenced by American culture

On May 26, according to Arizona Republic reporter Scott, Suns star Kevin Durant recently responded to the statement that "international players won many MVP honors thanks to higher-intensity overseas training" on social media.

This season, Alexander, born in Canada, won the MVP for the first time in his career, and international players have won this award for seven consecutive years. Alexander, Jokic and Antetokounmpo are the top three in the MVP vote this year, and they are all international players. Before Alexander, Antetokounmpo, Jokic and Embiid all won MVP, and Harden in 2018 was the most recent American player to win MVP.

2014 MVP winner Durant bluntly stated on social media that the argument that "international players have advantages due to high-intensity training" is "uninnovative".

He wrote: "Most successful international players are either deeply influenced by American basketball culture, or have played high school basketball in the United States, and some even went to college here. The whole discussion is meaningless. Basketball is a common language in the world, but everyone's 'dialect' is different. The way of basketball is taught differently among states in the United States, who can say which teaching method is perfect?"

Scott mentioned that Durant's response was directed at Lital, co-founder of Black Sports Online, on the Netflix documentary "Golden Field". This documentary about the 2024 Summer Olympics compares the strict training style adopted by European coaches with the relatively loose training methods of American coaches. Durant seems particularly dissatisfied with Litar's assertion that "we (the United States) has become a weak country."

In the 2024-25 season, Durant played 62 regular season games for the Suns, averaging 26.6 points, 6 rebounds and 4.2 assists per game, shooting percentage of 52.7%, three-point shooting percentage of 43%, and free throw percentage of 83.9%. He may leave the team through a trade this offseason.