Nike KD IV "Battle Tested" Release Date

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Kevin Durant famously won his first NBA championship last year, in 2017. After long wait, he had finally reached the top of the mountain. While, if only for the moment, knocking LeBron James off of it. Yet 2017 wasn’t Durant’s first time in the Finals — nor his only Finals run-in with James. He first ventured there with the Oklahoma City Thunder back in 2012.

The road was long and grueling. Durant would have to go through Dirk Nowitzki and the defending-champion Mavericks, Kobe Bryant’s Lakers and Tim Duncan’s mighty Spurs — the only three teams that had represented the Western Conference in the NBA Finals for the past 13 years. But KD, though not without strife, surpassed them all, dueling in the NBA Finals with James and the Miami Heat. The Heat would ultimately win the series but not without a fight from Durant. He led all players with 30.6 points per game while shooting 54.8-percent shooting from the field. His dominance was not without notice and everyone knew he’d be back.

Throughout Durant’s 2012 NBA Playoff run he laced up what many deem the best sneaker in his signature collection — the Nike Zoom KD IV. More specifically, Durant played in the Nike KD IV “Battle Tested” during a powerful Game 6 performance in the Western Conference Finals. That shoe will release as the first ever retro of the KD IV on June 7, honoring the six-year anniversary of that performance.