Durantula!

Tomorrow night the team formerly known as the Seattle SuperSonics will play the Miami Heat at American Airlines Arena. The game will not be a sellout. The AAA only fills up when Kobe, LeBron, the Celtics, or a big name opponent is in town on a Friday or Saturday. But the astute basketball fan in South Florida has had this game marked down on his calendar since the schedule came out. The astute basketball fan knows that the next Kobe, LeBron, Wade, type guy will be on the court Tuesday night. His name is Kevin Durant, but YOU already knew that. It won't be long until the casuals know his name as well.

The Durantula is averaging 28.1 PPG and 7.4 RPG in just his 3rd season in the league. That's up from the 25.3 PPG and 6.5 RPG that he was getting last season. And yeah, he's only 21 years old.

For a little perspective on how good his numbers are, here are the numbers for Kobe Bryant, LeBron James, and Kevin Durant at age 21.

                               MPG   FG%  3P%   FT%  RPG  APG  SPG  BPG  PPG
Kobe Bryant:        38.2    .468   .319   .821       6.3     4.9    1.6     0.9     22.5
LeBron James:      40.9    .476   .319   .698       6.7     6.0    1.6     0.7     27.3
Kevin Durant:       40.7    .443   .220   .886      7.4      2.4    1.6     0.7     28.1

The only numbers that are down right now for Durant are his 3P% (42.2% last season) which certainly has brought his overall FG% down (47.6% last year). He's not the ball handler that Bryant and James are but his overall numbers are outstanding for anyone, let alone someone his age.

Like a lot of great players around the league, he really is someone that you appreciate even more when you have the opportunity to see him live and in person. He can score from anywhere on the floor and he's freakishly athletic especially for someone who is 6'9". He looks even taller in person because of his skinny frame.

So if you have the opportunity to make it down to the AAA, do yourself a favor and go. Sometime in the very near future, tickets to see Kevin Durant play are going to be much harder to get.