A basketball player from his earliest days, Durant played for a very successful AAU youth basketball team. Durant's team, the PG Jaguars, won multiple national championships and included fellow blue chip recruits Michael Beasley (Kansas State) and Chris Braswell (Georgetown). Durant later moved on to play AAU ball with fellow McDonald's All American Tywon Lawson (North Carolina) for the DC Blue Devils.

During this time Durant also starred for the Oak Hill Academy basketball team, which won the 2005 USA Today National Championship. Durant transferred back home for the 2005-2006 school year to play for Stu Vetter at Montrose Christian School in Rockville, Maryland. At Montrose, Durant led the team in scoring and was named 2006 All-Met Player of the Year in Boys' Basketball by The Washington Post.

Durant also was named a McDonald's All American and was co-MVP of the 2006 McDonald's All American game with Chase Budinger. Coming out of high school, Durant was widely regarded as the second-best high school basketball player from the class of 2006 (behind Greg Oden)

Durant, a 6'9" small forward with a 7'4¾" wingspan, was widely hailed by the media as the Big 12's top freshman and a top candidate for Freshman of the Year. Durant averaged 25.8 points per game and 11.1 rebounds per game during his freshman season with the Texas Longhorns.

In Big 12 play he averaged 28.9 points per game and 12.5 rebounds. His college career high for scoring is 37, which he has achieved on four occasions. Durant had twenty 30-point games his freshman year, including a losing effort against Kansas for the regular season Big 12 title.

In March 2007, Durant was named the NABC Division I Player of the Year, and received the Oscar Robertson Trophy and the Adolph F. Rupp Trophy, becoming the first freshman to win each of these awards.

On March 30, 2007, he was selected as the Associated Press college player of the year, becoming the first freshman and the first Texas athlete to receive this award since its inception in 1961.On April 1, 2007 he became the first freshman to receive the Naismith Award and on April 7, 2007, won the John R. Wooden Award

In late February 2007, Durant received an invitation to the Team USA Basketball training camp. He was one of only two freshman to be invited to the camp (Greg Oden being the other).

Less than a week after the NBA Draft, The University of Texas announced the retirement of Durant's #35 jersey (Durant wears the #35 to honor his former PG Jaguars coach, Charles Craig, who was 35 years old when he was murdered in 2006). The number will now hang in the rafters at the Frank Erwin Center along with the #11 of former Longhorn great T.J. Ford.