Devin Durrant

Not to be confused with Kevin Durant.
Devin Durrant
Personal information
Born (1960-10-20) October 20, 1960
Brigham City, Utah
Nationality American
Listed height 6 ft 7 in (2.01 m)
Listed weight 200 lb (91 kg)
Career information
High school Provo (Provo, Utah)
College BYU (1978–1980, 1982–1984)
NBA draft 1984 / Round: 2 / Pick: 25th overall
Selected by the Indiana Pacers
Playing career 1984–1989
Position Small forward
Number 7, 17
Career history
1984–1985 Indiana Pacers
1985 Phoenix Suns
1988–1989 Olympique Antibes (France)
Career highlights and awards
Stats at Basketball-Reference.com

Devin George Durrant (born October 20, 1960)[1] is a retired American professional basketball player.

Born in Brigham City, Utah, Durrant was named a McDonald’s All-American in 1978 during his senior year of high school. He played at Brigham Young University and in 1984 he was named District 7 Player of the Year and a consensus All-American. He was also an Academic All-American twice. In 1984, Durrant was chosen by the Indiana Pacers as the 25th pick in the NBA Draft. He played a season with the Pacers and part of a second season with the Phoenix Suns. He also played professionally in Spain and France.

In a Deseret News poll in the year 2000, he was voted one of the top 10 college basketball players in the state of Utah over the previous 100 years.[2] In 1999, Sports Illustrated listed him as one of the 50 greatest Utah sports figures.[3]

After leaving professional basketball, Durrant worked as a marketing director with WordPerfect Corporation. He subsequently owned his own real estate investment firm.

Durrant is a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church) and has served in a variety of positions, including bishop, counselor in a stake presidency, high councilor, and stake mission president. As a young man, Durrant served as a full-time missionary in the church's Spain Madrid Mission. From 2011 to 2014, he served as president of the Texas Dallas Mission.

At the church's April 2014 General Conference, while still serving as a mission president in Texas, Durrant was accepted by the membership as second counselor to Tad R. Callister in the general presidency of the church's Sunday School.[1][4] Durrant completed his service in Texas and officially began the Sunday School assignment in July 2014. In May 2015, the LDS Church announced that John S. Tanner, who was serving as First Counselor in the Sunday School General Presidency, had been appointed as the next president of Brigham Young University-Hawaii. As a result, in June 2015 Durrant was called as first counselor, with Brian K. Ashton succeeding Durrant as second counselor.[5]

Durrant has spoken twice in the church's general conference. The first was in April 1984, just after completing his playing career at BYU, where he spoke on the topic of missionary work.[6] He spoke again in the October 2015 General Conference, while serving in the Sunday School General Presidency. In that conference, Durrant gave a sermon introducing the word "ponderize." He described it as a combination of memorizing and pondering a verse of scripture. He invited listeners to take up the practice. The next day it was discovered that he and his son had recently registered several web site domains for the word. Within a few hours of the sermon, his son launched a web site selling "ponderize" merchandise. Some church members felt that this rendered Durrant's sermon to be nothing more than an infomercial. A backlash on social media led to the web site being removed. Durrant later issued an apology.[7]

Durrant's parents are George and Marilyn Durrant. Durrant and his wife, Julie, are the parents of six children.

See also

References

  1. 1 2 "Devin G. Durrant", Liahona, May 2014.
  2. ↑ "All Century College Basketball Team".
  3. ↑ "The 50 Greatest Utah Sports Figures".
  4. ↑ "Leadership Change, New General Authorities and New Sunday School General Presidency Announced".
  5. ↑ "Church Calls New Member of Sunday School General Presidency", Newsroom (LDS Church), 2015-06-12
  6. ↑ Durrant, Devin. "Missions - Only You Can Decide". lds.org.
  7. ↑ Walch, Tad (5 October 2015). "Sunday School leader apologizes for son’s website". Deseret News.

External links


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