WOWED: Kevin Durant impressed by UK freshmen

NBA World Champion Kevin Durant has seen it all on the basketball court. He has played against the best the world has had to offer and some could make a case that he is one of the best to ever play the game.

But Durant still found himself in a New York City gym with Kentucky's Hamidou Diallo and Nick Richards. The two Cats made a lasting impression on the reigning NBA Finals MVP.

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“It was two freshmen from Kentucky. I forget their names. Diallo and Richards? They were — phew. Bouncy. They played hard too. They were ballin’, man,” Durant said of his pickup games last week.

Diallo will begin his redshirt freshmen season at Kentucky and play his first game in a Wildcat jersey this November. The Queens native sat out the spring semester at Kentucky and then put his name into the NBA Draft without signing an agent.

As UK fans remember, Diallo pulled his name out of the NBA Draft close to the last minute of the deadline. Several NBA Mock Drafts had Diallo going in the first round and he was one of the most impressive athletes at the NBA Draft Combine weeks earlier.

Nick Richards is a five-star recruit, also from Queens by way of Jamaica. He picked Kentucky over Syracuse and Indiana. UK missed on five-star Mohamed Bamba (Texas) and Isaac Humphries surprisingly left to pursue a professional career, so Richards will be UK's only center on the roster.

Joining Richards, Diallo and Durant in those pickup games last week were plenty of other NBA stars. Camerlo Anthony, LeBron James, Enes Kanter, JR Smith and Lance Thomas were also spotted in the pickup games.