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NEW YORK -- President Barack Obama invited all sorts of star basketball players Sunday to the White House.If you ask Kevin Durant, Obama forgot to send an invitation to his neighbor.
The Oklahoma City star forward is from Seat Pleasant, Md., which he calls "a minute or so outside of southeast D.C.'' But while current NBA players LeBron James, Kobe Bryant, Dwyane Wade, Carmelo Anthony, Chris Paul, Derrick Rose, Grant Hill, Chauncey Billups, Derek Fisher, David West, Shane Battier and Etan Thomas and legends Magic Johnson and Bill Russell were at the event attended by wounded war veterans, Durant wasn't invited.
"I didn't even know it was going on until somebody told me on Twitter,'' Durant said in an interview with FanHouse following his Team USA's practice Tuesday at New York's John Jay College in preparation for this month's World Championship in Turkey. "I would have loved to be there. I'm from DC, and I never had a chance to go the White House. It would have been cool. But there's always next year. Hopefully, they'll do it again and I'll be invited.
"I was born and raised (in the Washington area). It would have been cool to go up there and play on the court and just to meet the president since I've been living there my whole life and never got a chance to do it ... Especially him being the first African-American president (and) being a big basketball fan, it'd have been cool for me to see and a great experience.''
Durant is the NBA's most recent scoring champion. But he wonders if this is an indication he needs to step up his game even more to be recognized.
"I've got to continue to keep showing people that I can play a little bit,'' Durant said. "It's all about me just working hard.''
Durant said he talked with Rose, who also is on Team USA, and exchanged texts with James about the White House visit, and they enjoyed it. Durant also said another individual offered him advice on one way to definitely get an invitation to the White House.
"Somebody told me if we win the championship, I'll go see the president,'' Durant said.
Chris Tomasson can be reached at tomasson@fanhouse.com or on Twitter@christomasson
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