Kevin Durant agrees to 2-year extension with Rockets through 2027-28 season

Kevin Durant wants to be in Houston for more than one year. And he left more than $30 million on the bargaining table to make that possible.

Durant has signed a contract extension that could keep the four-time scoring champion and four-time Olympic gold medalist with the Rockets through the 2027-28 season, the team announced Sunday.

It is a two-year extension, the second year at Durant's option, according to a person who spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because the Rockets did not disclose those details.

ESPN, which first reported the agreement, cited Durant's business partner Rich Kleiman and said the deal could be worth $90 million. If Durant plays both seasons as planned, that $90 million would push his on-court earnings to nearly $600 million — which could be an NBA record, depending on how long LeBron James continues to play.

Durant — a 15-time All-Star, one of only seven players in NBA history with that many selections — was eligible for an extension that could have been worth $122 million. He opted for less, a move that will provide the Rockets plenty of flexibility for other deals going forward.

“Generous guy,” Rockets forward Amen Thompson told reporters in Houston on Sunday.

The new deal had been expected since Durant chose to join the Rockets and they swung a trade for him this past summer. Houston was the Western Conference's No. 2 seed last season after going 52-30, snapping a five-year playoff drought. The Rockets are 93-71 in Ime Udoka's two seasons as coach, after going 59-177 in the three previous seasons.

“I think we all knew when we traded for him and when he came here it wasn’t a short-term thing,” Udoka said. “Good to get to a point where everybody’s happy and hopefully he finishes his career here.”

Durant said at Rockets' media day last month that he expected to sign an extension.

“Just seeing the quick progression of this franchise from where it was right after that James Harden-Chris Paul era, seeing when Ime got here and how he turned it around so fast ... it just felt organic and natural coming into the gym and being a Houston Rocket for the first time,” Durant said.

Durant is eighth all-time on the NBA scoring list. He realistically could climb to No. 5 this season; currently at 30,571 points, he is 848 behind No. 7 Wilt Chamberlain, 989 behind No. 6 Dirk Nowitzki and 1,721 behind No. 5 Michael Jordan.

Durant averaged 26.6 points last season, his 17th in the NBA — not counting one year missed because of injury. For his career, the 6-foot-11 forward is averaging 27.2 points and seven rebounds per game.

Signing with Houston brought Durant back to the state of Texas, where he played his one year of college basketball for the Longhorns and was the college player of the year before going as the No. 2 pick in the 2007 draft by Seattle.

Houston is his fifth franchise, after the SuperSonics (who then became the Oklahoma City Thunder), Golden State, Brooklyn and Phoenix. Durant won his two NBA championships with the Warriors in 2017 and 2018, and last year he became both the highest-scoring player in U.S. Olympic basketball history and the first men’s player to be part of four gold-medal basketball teams.

Having an option to play into 2028 also raises the possibility that Durant may consider playing for the U.S. at the Los Angeles Olympics.

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Houston Rockets' Amen Thompson (1) is held by Kevin Durant (7) after a scuffle on the court against New Orleans Pelicans' Jose Alvarado during the first half of an NBA preseason basketball game, Tuesday, Oct. 14, 2025, in Birmingham, Ala. (AP Photo/Mike Stewart)

Houston Rockets forward Kevin Durant (7) moves the ball against the New Orleans Pelicans during the first half of an NBA preseason basketball game, Tuesday, Oct. 14, 2025, in Birmingham, Ala. (AP Photo/Mike Stewart)

Houston Rockets forward Kevin Durant (7) shoots against the New Orleans Pelicans during the first half of an NBA preseason basketball game, Tuesday, Oct. 14, 2025, in Birmingham, Ala. (AP Photo/Mike Stewart)

Houston Rockets forward Kevin Durant (7) greets fans during the second half of an NBA preseason basketball game against the New Orleans Pelicans, Tuesday, Oct. 14, 2025, in Birmingham, Ala. (AP Photo/Mike Stewart)

Houston Rockets forward Kevin Durant (7) moves on the court against the New Orleans Pelicans during the first half of an NBA preseason basketball game, Tuesday, Oct. 14, 2025, in Birmingham, Ala. (AP Photo/Mike Stewart)

Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powellsaid Sunday the Department of Justice has served the central bank with subpoenas and threatened it with a criminal indictment over his testimony this summer about the Fed’s building renovations.

The move represents an unprecedented escalation in President Donald Trump’s battle with the Fed, an independent agency he's repeatedly attacked for not cutting its key interest rate as sharply as he prefers. The renewed fight will likely rattle financial markets Monday and could over time escalate borrowing costs for mortgages and other loans.

The subpoenas relate to Powell’s testimony before the Senate Banking Committee in June, the Fed chair said, regarding the Fed’s $2.5 billion renovation of two office buildings, a project Trump has criticized as excessive.

Here's the latest:

Stocks are falling on Wall Street after Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said the Department of Justice had served the central bank with subpoenas and threatened it with a criminal indictment over his testimony about the Fed’s building renovations.

The S&P 500 fell 0.3% in early trading Monday. The Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 384 points, or 0.8%, and the Nasdaq composite fell 0.2%.

Powell characterized the threat of criminal charges as pretexts to undermine the Fed’s independence in setting interest rates, its main tool for fighting inflation. The threat is the latest escalation in President Trump’s feud with the Fed.

▶ Read more about the financial markets

She says she had “a very good conversation” with Trump on Monday morning about topics including “security with respect to our sovereignties.”

Last week, Sheinbaum had said she was seeking a conversation with Trump or U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio after the U.S. president made comments in an interview that he was ready to confront drug cartels on the ground and repeated the accusation that cartels were running Mexico.

Trump’s offers of using U.S. forces against Mexican cartels took on a new weight after the Trump administration deposed Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro. Sheinbaum was expected to share more about their conversation later Monday.

A leader of the Canadian government is visiting China this week for the first time in nearly a decade, a bid to rebuild his country’s fractured relations with the world’s second-largest economy — and reduce Canada’s dependence on the United States, its neighbor and until recently one of its most supportive and unswerving allies.

The push by Prime Minster Mark Carney, who arrives Wednesday, is part of a major rethink as ties sour with the United States — the world’s No. 1 economy and long the largest trading partner for Canada by far.

Carney aims to double Canada’s non-U.S. exports in the next decade in the face of President Trump’s tariffs and the American leader’s musing that Canada could become “the 51st state.”

▶ Read more about relations between Canada and China

The comment by a Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson came in response to a question at a regular daily briefing. President Trump has said he would like to make a deal to acquire Greenland, a semiautonomous region of NATO ally Denmark, to prevent Russia or China from taking it over.

Tensions have grown between Washington, Denmark and Greenland this month as Trump and his administration push the issue and the White House considers a range of options, including military force, to acquire the vast Arctic island.

Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen has warned that an American takeover of Greenland would mark the end of NATO.

▶ Read more about the U.S. and Greenland

Trump said Sunday that he is “inclined” to keep ExxonMobil out of Venezuela after its top executive was skeptical about oil investment efforts in the country after the toppling of former President Nicolás Maduro.

“I didn’t like Exxon’s response,” Trump said to reporters on Air Force One as he departed West Palm Beach, Florida. “They’re playing too cute.”

During a meeting Friday with oil executives, Trump tried to assuage the concerns of the companies and said they would be dealing directly with the U.S., rather than the Venezuelan government.

Some, however, weren’t convinced.

“If we look at the commercial constructs and frameworks in place today in Venezuela, today it’s uninvestable,” said Darren Woods, CEO of ExxonMobil, the largest U.S. oil company.

An ExxonMobil spokesperson did not immediately respond Sunday to a request for comment.

▶ Read more about Trump’s comments on ExxonMobil

Trump’s motorcade took a different route than usual to the airport as he was departing Florida on Sunday due to a “suspicious object,” according to the White House.

The object, which the White House did not describe, was discovered during security sweeps in advance of Trump’s arrival at Palm Beach International Airport.

“A further investigation was warranted and the presidential motorcade route was adjusted accordingly,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a statement Sunday.

The president, when asked about the package by reporters, said, “I know nothing about it.”

Anthony Guglielmi, the spokesman for U.S. Secret Service, said the secondary route was taken just as a precaution and that “that is standard protocol.”

▶ Read more about the “suspicious object”

Trump said Iran wants to negotiate with Washington after his threat to strike the Islamic Republic over its bloody crackdown on protesters, a move coming as activists said Monday the death toll in the nationwide demonstrations rose to at least 544.

Iran had no direct reaction to Trump’s comments, which came after the foreign minister of Oman — long an interlocutor between Washington and Tehran — traveled to Iran this weekend. It also remains unclear just what Iran could promise, particularly as Trump has set strict demands over its nuclear program and its ballistic missile arsenal, which Tehran insists is crucial for its national defense.

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, speaking to foreign diplomats in Tehran, insisted “the situation has come under total control” in fiery remarks that blamed Israel and the U.S. for the violence, without offering evidence.

▶ Read more about the possible negotiations and follow live updates

Fed Chair Powell said Sunday the DOJ has served the central bank with subpoenas and threatened it with a criminal indictment over his testimony this summer about the Fed’s building renovations.

The move represents an unprecedented escalation in Trump’s battle with the Fed, an independent agency he has repeatedly attacked for not cutting its key interest rate as sharply as he prefers. The renewed fight will likely rattle financial markets Monday and could over time escalate borrowing costs for mortgages and other loans.

The subpoenas relate to Powell’s testimony before the Senate Banking Committee in June, the Fed chair said, regarding the Fed’s $2.5 billion renovation of two office buildings, a project that Trump has criticized as excessive.

Powell on Sunday cast off what has up to this point been a restrained approach to Trump’s criticisms and personal insults, which he has mostly ignored. Instead, Powell issued a video statement in which he bluntly characterized the threat of criminal charges as simple “pretexts” to undermine the Fed’s independence when it comes to setting interest rates.

▶ Read more about the subpoenas

President Donald Trump speaks to reporters while in flight on Air Force One to Joint Base Andrews, Md., Sunday, Jan. 11, 2026. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson)

President Donald Trump waves after arriving on Air Force One from Florida, Sunday, Jan. 11, 2026, at Joint Base Andrews, Md. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson)