Kevin Durant received a text message from Thunder head athletic trainer Joe Sharpe over the weekend. It had explicit instructions for how Durant should handle a rare two days off.

“‘Stay in bed for 10 hours,’” Durant said the text read.

For once, Durant listened.

“That’s what I tried to do to get my body back and programmed to being in Oklahoma City,” Durant said.

The Thunder returned early Saturday morning from a season-long, five-game road trip. It spanned eight days, starting in San Antonio before culminating in Salt Lake City. Another grueling stretch is on tap, as the Thunder will now play seven games over the next 10 days, which explains at Sharpe’s suggestion.

But six of the next seven will be played inside Chesapeake Energy Arena, and the Thunder has the unusual luxury of kicking off this stretch Tuesday night against Utah on the heels of a three-day break between games. Because of the lockout-shortened and compacted season, it’s the only time this season, excluding the All-Star break and the season opener, that the Thunder will have three days between games.

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Last week the NBA announced 1,345,566 votes were cast for Oklahoma City Thunder forward Kevin Durant, thereby securing his place as a starter on the 2012 Western Conference All-Star team. As the numbers go, Durant received the most votes for the forward position in the Western Conference. A distant second in forwards was the Los Angeles Clippers’ Blake Griffin (876,451 votes). Overall, Durant was second only to Kobe Bryant of the Los Angeles Lakers in conference voting (who nabbed 1,555,479 votes).

“To to see that many votes he had compared to the next forward, it was a great thing,” Thunder teammate Russell Westbrook told HOOPSWORLD. “It’s a great, great thing (to be voted by) the fan base especially, you know, starting here and expanding across the world.”

Durant is no stranger to the All-Star Weekend festivities. In 2010 – his third season in the NBA – he was named an All-Star reserve. He was voted an All-Star starter last year. He’s also logged time in the Rookie-Sophomore game and is the reigning back-to-back H-O-R-S-E champion.

“I feel like a vet now, to be honest,” said Durant, a wide grin spreading across his face. “It was an exciting feeling when I got that call.”

If he had been keeping track of the voting, he may not have been too surprised. Final confirmation, however, inevitably gave him a special feeling.

“You’ve got to be thrilled when something like that happens, regardless if you know it’s coming or not,” shared Westbrook.

“(I’m) just blessed that I got this opportunity, blessed the fans voted me in, so I’m going to do my best to represent,” Durant said.

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OKLAHOMA CITY — Kevin Durant wasn’t sure at first that he wanted to be a movie star and a basketball star.

It took some peer pressure and some encouragement from his mother, but now Durant is bringing Hollywood to Oklahoma City for a few days. The two-time NBA scoring champion filmed scenes from the upcoming movie “Thunderstruck” Tuesday at the team’s home arena, including the pivotal sequence when his basketball skills are magically switched with a clumsy teenager to throw the Thunder’s playoff hopes into question.

Durant plays himself in the movie. Nickelodeon star Taylor Gray misses a halfcourt shot so badly that it hits Oklahoma City’s mascot, Rumble, in the arena tunnel and he tracks down the ball at the same time as Durant. He says he wishes he could play as well as Durant, and the Thunder superstar says he wishes he could help.

The wish magically gets granted, with the downside being that Durant suddenly has the skills of a kid who couldn’t make his own high school basketball team.

“It was pretty cool. I’m going to be nervous about how people view the movie and how they think my performance was,” Durant said. “I really don’t care now. I did it, it was fun, I enjoyed myself, I made some friends along the way, so I think it was a success.”

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Slowly, as students from Oklahoma City’s Centennial Mid-High School shot hoops and stretched, one head turned at a time toward the door of their gymnasium.

Slowly, they all realized that Thunder players Kevin Durant, James Harden and Royal Ivey had just walked into their school.

The three players joined students as they took part in Tuesday’s Thunder Fit Clinic, presented by Homeland, to help instill in them good fitness habits, knowledge of nutrition and a passion for basketball.

“It’d have been a dream for me to have an NBA player teach me the game,” Durant said as he led the students in dribbling and shooting drills. “Playing the game right is how it starts. Whatever you learn after that is a plus.”

All three players emphasized the need for young basketball players to work on the basic skills of the game.

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While in Boston earlier this week, The Oklahoman asked KD about Jeff Green, who is missing the season after undergoing heart surgery to repair an aortic aneurysm. Here’s what KD had to say about his friend and former teammate:

“I dedicate the season to him. Jeff is a positive person. I learned so much from him. No matter what, he stays positive through the toughest times. He’s still smiling and laughing and enjoying himself. It’s tough to go through what he went through, and I pray for him every single day. But he knows that he’s going to get back better and stronger. I can’t wait for that day. I know he can’t wait.”

Jeff and KD have been friends since they were teenagers growing up in the D.C. area. They entered the league together in 2007, playing for the Seattle Supersonics before the team moved to OKC, where they played two and a half seasons together. Jeff was traded to the Celtics last year as part of the Kendrick Perkins deal.

Keep Jeff in your thoughts and Prayers.

One of the most fun moments of 2011, a year dominated by much more painful ones, took place on Aug. 30, at Morgan State’s Hill Field House, when Kevin Durant showed up at a summer-league basketball game 45 minutes late.

And he was cheered by the standing room-only crowd and followed onto the court by a flood of kids, like a lanky, baby-faced Pied Piper.

It was just one example, on one steamy summer night, of how much the sports world needed a Kevin Durant, and how well Kevin Durant gave the sports world what it needed.

Is there a big-time professional athlete who did that better in 2011 than Durant?

Never mind just in the NBA, the league that seemed dedicated like few others to discovering new ways to alienate every segment of its fan base. The Most Valuable Player trophy for the 2010-11 season went to Derrick Rose and the Finals MVP went home with Dirk Nowitzki — but the NBA’s MVP for this past calendar year was the heart, soul and conscience of basketball, Kevin Durant.

There’s not much reason not to give him the award for all of sports, too.

Sure, it’s easy to turn away from the pros to find an example of the purity of sports, as competition, as healer, as expression of our better nature instead of our worse. There are middle school kids, grown-ups dealing with disabilities and hardships and tragedies, soldiers and civilians finding sanity in the insanity of war.

Who equates those values and principles with the money-drenched, entitlement-spoiled world of pro sports?

Equate it here.

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SLAM Magazine recently took a look back at some of their Punks features on NBA stars during their high school days. Here’s a look at KD’s.

Kevin Durant probably wouldn’t mind hollering at Nike or Rocawear one day about becoming a pitchman, but as of right now, the only companies the 6-9 sensation screams praises for are Skippy and Smuckers. “I eat a lot of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches,” says the player who’s currently sandwiched between Greg Oden and our own Thaddeus Young in the top three spots of the 2006 prospect rankings. “I eat that every day. That’s my favorite. I put a lot of peanut butter on them!”

So, the secret’s out: Fill up on the lunchtime staple and your basketball skills go through the roof. It probably helps that Durant’s as long as the release-day line for Madden ’06 and he has the versatility of a Hummer H3. Still, PB&J has its place. “One of the things our strength coach recommends,” says Stu Vetter, head coach at Durant’s new hoops home, Montrose Christian Academy, “is that when Kevin is finished lifting, he eats a peanut butter and jelly sandwich because that helps you gain weight and strength. He’s going to get a lot of peanut butter and jelly at Montrose.” Atkins, eat your heart out.

Another thing the 17-year-old Maryland-bred phenom had best learn to digest is all the media attention coming his way. Durant, who starred first at MD’s National Christian and then at Oak Hill (VA) Academy the past three years, has landed at yet another national prep powerhouse for his high-profile senior season. “We’re used to high expectations,” insists Coach Vetter, who’s had a team ranked every year that the USA Today poll has come out and is loaded again this season. “Kevin will simply blend in with these players. We have another three or four D1 players that I didn’t even mention.”

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In ESPN’s preseason poll of 30 of its NBA writers, 12 predicted KD to win the 2012 NBA MVP, while 11 believe it will be LeBron and 7 think it will be Chris Paul. What’s your predicting for 2012 NBA MVP?

While the Zoom KD IV has seemingly stolen the signature spotlight from the rest of Nike Basketball’s marquee athletes this fall, most of that attention can be directly attributed to the “Nerf” themed version launching today.

As we saw all summer long on the charity and exhibition game circuit, it was hard to find a locked out NBA player showing more passion for the game of basketball than Kevin Durant, and Nike Basketball is showcasing KD’s youthful love of the sport in what is easily the most hyped colorway in his signature line’s young history. Just a few weeks ago, they were even voted the most anticipated model of the entire season. With an aggressive concord purple and bright crimson base, the story most certainly also goes well beyond just the sneaker, as one of the brand’s most evolved boxes makes its way to retail. The damn thing turns into a Nerf hoop itself.

Check out a detailed look at just how the “Nerf” Zoom KD IV theme and concept came about ahead, straight from Nike Basketball Graphic Designer Erick Goto, who worked in conjuction with Color Designer Eugene Rogers and Materials Designer Golnaz Armin to bring the story to life.

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From ESPN, Page 2…a look at KD’s spectacular off-season, dress up doll style.