Kevin Durant (photo. Dorothy Hong)

Kevin Durant has always been a big-stage performer. He just needs the stage. So when no members of the Redeem Team suited up for Team USA at the World Championship this summer, Durant took full advantage of his opportunity to become basketball’s leading man. Now as his fourth NBA season is underway and he leads the League in scoring (again) — averaging 28.3 points per game through the Oklahoma City Thunder’s first 15 games — the 22-year-old occupies rarified air as perhaps the best player on the planet.

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Kevin Durant averages more points per game than his 11-letter name is worth in Scrabble. (That’s 30.1 compared with 19 for those of you breaking out your tiles at home.) But this isn’t a game. At 22 years old and with only three-plus years in the League under his belt, the NBA’s reigning scoring champ is already a top-5 player in the NBA, and en route to becoming one of the best ever.

Despite LeBron James being the only player to receive more MVP votes than him last year, the mild-mannered Durant still jokes about walking through NBA cities and people not recognizing him.

“The main thing we’re trying to do is let people know who we play for,” says the 6-10 Durant. “I walk down the street and I’m tall, somebody asks me who I play for and I say, ‘Oklahoma City.’ They say, ‘College?’ So I say, ‘No, we’re the Thunder. Used to be the Sonics.’

“Even with Twitter and Facebook, people still don’t know where Oklahoma City is,” continues Durant. “I just try and do my best to show people who we are and another part of that is how we perform on the court. I’m sure we’ll get more TV games next year, and be on TNT, ESPN and wherever. If we continue to just get better as a group, then people will start to recognize who we are.”

And as the most exciting player to enter the NBA since LeBron in 2003, KD shouldn’t have that problem much longer. While his list of firsts this past season included All-Star, All-NBA First Team and playoff berths, without fail, Durant’s name is the first one mentioned when you ask the NBA’s elite who they tune in to watch when they’re not playing.

He’s a natural-born leader in the same sense as Steve Nash. Guys want to be around him, they want to play with him and they want to be associated with him. He’s the general of the NBA’s youth. It’s kind of crazy that at only 25 years old, LeBron is almost the old guard at this point with guys like ’Melo, CP and Wade in his clique. KD is the new kid on the block and seems to have captured the imagination and the allegiance of younger players. We saw it on full display in Turkey as his teammates followed his lead and clearly looked to him every time it got tough as Durant led his squad to hard-fought gold.

So in a League where 450 players all have NBA-sized egos and are all fighting for the same dollars, it’s extremely rare to hear anyone get the praise that Durant does from his peers. Make no mistake, Kevin Durant is your favorite player’s favorite player.

“I’m a big fan of his,” says three-time All-Star Carmelo Anthony. “You know, when he was in high school, when he was in college, I’ve always been a fan of his – so that goes without even saying.”

“He’s a 7-2 guard,” says two-time All-Star Baron Davis. “He has great handles, works hard, plays to win and has improved every year. He is going to dominate for a long time. Sign him up for the Hall of Fame now.”

When you’re writing a story on Durant, everyone comes out of the woodwork. It’s like when Jay-Z works on a new album – everyone wants to guest on a track. So while sometimes it’s difficult to get in touch with NBA players during the offseason, a sacrosanct time normally spent with their family away from the media spotlight, guys were hitting us up to talk about KD. And there’s no one that knows Durant better than the people around him.

From pickup games to All-Star Games, from workouts to shoot-outs, everyone I talked to for this story gave me a reason why they stop what they’re doing when the Thunder happen to be on TV, or Durant is tearing through “SportsCenter” highlights. And although he wouldn’t say it outright, one player even hinted that Durant was the primary reason he subscribed to NBA League Pass.