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"&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt; Kevin Durant appears on the cover of this week's Sports Illustrated. (Greg Nelson/SI)&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;This week's &lt;em&gt;Sports Illustrated &lt;/em&gt;cover\u00A0features Thunder forward Kevin Durant, surrounded by his words that read, at first, like a venting promise.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;\u201CI\u2019ve been second my whole life,\u201D Durant tells &lt;em&gt;SI&lt;/em&gt;'s Lee Jenkins in a profile that will hit newsstands on Thursday. \u201CI was the second-best player in high school. I was the second pick in the draft. I\u2019ve been second in the MVP voting three times. I came in second in the Finals. I\u2019m tired of being second. I\u2019m not going to settle for that. I\u2019m done with it.\u201D&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;That quote perfectly sums up the inherent frustration involved in operating at the highest of levels in LeBron James' world. Is anything ever good enough when James keeps raising the bar?&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;But Jenkins' profile reveals a Durant who has fully embraced that frustration as a means to self-improvement. There isn't a hint of \"woe is me\" whining in Durant's declaration; he's too busy searching for ways to reach the summit.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;That process includes first-hand observation of James, a study that has unfolded over multiple years, drifted into the world of advanced statistics and resulted in a friendship, but one that has only fueled their competitive tension.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;\u201CThat\u2019s my guy,\u201D Durant says. \u201CI looked up to him [James], and now I battle him.\u201D&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;...&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;\u201CI don\u2019t watch a lot of other basketball away from the gym,\u201D Durant says. \u201CBut I do look at LeBron\u2019s box score. I want to see how many points, rebounds and assists he had, and how he shot from the field. If he had 30 points, nine rebounds and eight assists, I can tell you exactly how he did it, what type of shots he made and who he passed to.\u201D Durant and James take flak for their friendship, but it is based on a mutual appreciation of the craft. They aren\u2019t hanging out at the club. They are feverishly one-upping each other from afar. \u201CPeople see two young black basketball players at the top of their game and think we should clash,\u201D Durant says. \u201CThey want the conflict. They want the hate. They forget Bird cried for Magic. A friend was getting on me about this recently, and I said, \u2018Calm down. I\u2019m not taking it easy on him. Don\u2019t you know I\u2019m trying to destroy the guy every time I go on the court?\u2019\u2008\u201D&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;It's one thing to pay lip service to the shot charts and numbers; it's quite another to employ a personal stat geek and to memorize situational shooting statistics. Durant, we find out, has done both of those things, and more.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Kevin Durant sat in a leather terminal chair next to a practice court and pointed toward the 90-degree- angle at the upper-right corner of the key that represents the elbow. \u201CSee that spot,\u201D Durant said. \u201CI used to shoot 38, 39\u00A0percent from there off the catch coming around pin-down screens.\u201D He paused for emphasis. \u201CI\u2019m up to 45, 46\u00A0percent now.\u201D&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;...&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Durant has hired his own analytics expert. He tailors workouts to remedy numerical imbalances. He harps on efficiency more than a Prius dealer. To Durant, basketball is an orchard, and every shot an apple. \u201CLet\u2019s say you\u2019ve got 40\u00A0apples on your tree,\u201D Durant explains. \u201CI could eat about 30 of them, but I\u2019ve begun limiting myself to 15 or 16. Let\u2019s take the wide-open three and the post-up at the nail. Those are good apples. Let\u2019s throw out the pull-up three in transition and the step-back fadeaway. Those are rotten apples. The three at the top of the circle -- that\u2019s an in-between apple. We only want the very best on the tree.\u201D&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;The takeaway feeling is that Durant exists these days entirely within the \"edge\" that elite athletes often talk about, and it's enough to make you wonder how he stays sane, given James' all-encompassing dominance, and whether the mean streak he's shown this season is a negative by-product of all that built-up tension. Jenkins explores, concluding that Durant hasn't fundamentally changed, even if he has evolved.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Previously, if power forward Serge Ibaka blew a box-out, Durant would tell him, \u201CIt\u2019s O.K. You\u2019re going to get it next time.\u201D But the stakes had risen. \u201CYou want to get to the Finals again, and you think everything should be perfect, and it\u2019s not,\u201D Durant says. \u201CSo I\u2019d scream at him and pump my fist.\u201D&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Durant has picked up 12\u00A0technical fouls this season, more than twice as many as his previous career high, and he was ejected for the first time, in January, after arguing with referee Danny Crawford. \u201CI\u2019m rubbing off on him,\u201D says Thunder center Kendrick Perkins, who keeps a standing 2\u00A0a.m. phone call with Durant every night to discuss the state of the team. \u201CHe\u2019s getting a little edge on.\u201D The techs dovetailed neatly with Nike\u2019s \u201CKD is Not Nice\u201D marketing campaign, but they still don\u2019t fit the recipient. Even after the ejection, Durant stopped to high-five kids sitting over the tunnel. \u201CPeople get it confused and think you have to be a jerk to win,\u201D he says. \u201CBut we all feed off positive energy. I\u2019m a nice guy. I enjoy making people happy and brightening their day. If someone asks me for an autograph on the street, I don\u2019t want to wave him off and tell him, \u2018Hell, no.\u2019 That\u2019s not me. The last few months I\u2019ve calmed down and had more fun. We can still get on each other, but there\u2019s another way.\u201DIn sum, the piece winds up whetting the appetite, especially as a Heat-Thunder rematch looms as a very real postseason possibility. There's plenty more to process, including details about how Durant improved his ball handling, thoughts from teammates on how he's honed his game during his six-year career and what the James Harden trade meant for Durant's offensive role. Click here to subscribe to\u00A0&lt;em&gt;Sports Illustrated&lt;/em&gt;, and be sure to\u00A0follow Jenkins on Twitter. You can also listen to Jenkins discuss Durant and the cover story on this podcast with &lt;em&gt;SI&lt;/em&gt;'s Richard Deitsch.&lt;/p&gt;"^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
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