Kevin Durant downplays being a superstar, humbles himself as just a Phoenix Suns teammate

Kevin Durant wants to be known as a humble teammate rather than a superstar on the Phoenix Suns.

His recent birthday made him match his jersey No. 35 last Friday.

At the Suns' fourth training camp practice on Friday, Durant reflected on his Hall of Fame-worthy career with no plans of slowing down.

“I’ve been in the league for half my life now," Durant said. "It’s a blessing to play on this platform, doing what I love to do. I just want to continue putting in good work, and keep adding to what I did already.”

Durant entered the league at 19 as the Seattle Supersonics' second overall pick in 2007, then the franchise moved to Oklahoma City and were renamed the Thunder the following year. The team didn't have any superstars on the roster, other than when it drafted Durant's former teammate and fellow member of the NBA's 75 Greatest List in Russell Westbrook that same year the team settled in the midwest.

At 35, Durant's accomplishments and continued elite play keep him in the conversation with 21-year veteran LeBron James as the world's best.

That includes Durant being a 13-time All-Star, two-time world champion during his three seasons with the Golden State Warriors, earning two finals MVPs in those same title runs, being a four-time scoring champion and the league's youngest to ever accomplish that in 2010, and the 2014 MVP to name a few out of the laundry list of honors.

But it was all according to his lifelong plan as he studied his childhood idols and peers like James.

“I would’ve believed them for sure. That’s what I envisioned. This is what I wanted to be," Durant said when asked if he viewed his career to be as storied as it's become.

"As a young player you look up to guys who played a long time in the league. The Kobe Bryants, the KGs (Kevin Garnett), Paul Pierce, you see those guys that have been 15-plus years in the league. You see that as a young player, you want to emulate that. Vince Carter, LeBron James, all those guys you want to emulate. So that’s the goal for me is to be around as long as possible.”

Durant's the eldest player on Phoenix's roster as well as one of their three best players with Devin Booker and Bradley Beal.

At the team's Media Day on Monday, Booker called Durant one of his muses that he looked up to as a kid during the late 2000s and early last decade.

Several of their younger teammates and peers look to them to inevitably help step up their own game in practice.

“You have no choice but to be a good defender when they’re all on one team all going against each other or whatever,” Keita Bates-Diop said. “Those are three of the best scorers arguably in this generation.”

Durant claimed that he's "just a teammate" rather than viewing himself as a superstar. Part of that is Phoenix's first-year coach Frank Vogel describing him as a serene vocal leader communicating without "the rah-rah stuff" or without yelling to get his point across.

What Durant wants to do in his first Phoenix camp is set an example as a leader on defense, and rid the superstar image of not taking pride in playing that end of the floor.

“It’s just the perception that guys that are superstars in this league don’t play defense," Durant said. "We just continue to just blend in with the group. Everybody’s playing extremely hard. And even though we can do whatever we want on offense, we still want to be there to make sure we’re here for our teammates on that side of the ball.

Just putting out that second and third effort out there, it’s starting to show. Everybody’s on one string at practice, so it’s always good, so hopefully it transfers each and every day and getting better.”

This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Kevin Durant downplays being a Suns superstar, names his NBA idols