Ryan Dunn spent his rookie season with the Phoenix Suns learning under Kevin Durant. Now he’s eager to face off against his boyhood idol.
SINGAPORE – Phoenix Suns forward Ryan Dunn couldn’t have been more thrilled when he joined the Phoenix Suns as a rookie last year. Drafted 28th overall in the 2024 NBA Rookie Draft by the Denver Nuggets, Dunn was traded on draft night to the Suns, which meant he would be teammates with one of his boyhood idols, Kevin Durant.
Their one season together was disappointing from a team perspective as the Suns stumbled to a 36-46 record and an early vacation. But Dunn was still able to grow as a player under the mentorship of Durant. However, last week’s trade that sent Durant to the Houston Rockets put an abrupt end to their connection.
“Kevin’s like a brother to me now and a mentor since day one,” Dunn said on Wednesday shortly after the opening ceremonies of the NBA Rising Stars Invitational 2025 here. “Even before we were teammates, I wanted to go work out with him for the first time, and that’s someone I always grew up watching playing, and he took me under his wing. So we learned from him, and just being competitive, being confident in yourself, and just working on your skills, learning some different stuff on the court was great for me. Obviously, it’s sad that he had to go, but it’s part of the league, it’s part of the business, and I’m wishing him the best of luck out in Houston.”
Dunn will now be sharing the ball with Dillon Brooks and Jalen Green, who came over to Phoenix in the trade.
“I’m waiting to compete against (Durant) now, and we got a lot of good players like Dillon and Jalen, so I’m excited to see those two come out and help us win some games. I think Dillon, just him being a mess on the defense, being a pest, we need that to be trying to be a defensive team, so him just coming down, being aggressive and starting the game, setting the tone. And then Jalen with his athleticism, his scoring ability, his quickness being able to help Book (Devin Booker) and Brad (Bradley Beal) alongside, so it may help us get up and down a little bit, keep the pace of the game going.”
Dunn is in Singapore with teammate and fellow Suns rookie Oso Ighodaro, and he noted how crazy it was that just a year ago, both of them were at the NBA draft waiting for their names to be called before they both ended up with the Suns.
“It’s been great, and having him with me has been even better. You know, we came in here together since day one, and the draft is (Thursday), so it’s kind of crazy having a full year circle. We’re ending up now in Singapore. Last year, we’re both in New York getting ready for the draft, so it’s been great.
“We were in Hong Kong earlier this week, so learning more about Hong Kong and their culture and flying out here to Singapore and watching these great kids play basketball and giving some advice, it’s been great. There’s great basketball everywhere, not even in this region, in the world.
One thing’s for sure: Ryan Dunn is now a fan of Asian food.
“I think the best thing about this trip is probably the basketball first and then the food, I think. Chinese food and this food’s been great, so I’ve been enjoying that as much as I can.”
The NBA Rising Stars Invitational is the first of its kind in Asia, a gathering of the top boys’ and girls’ high school teams from all over the Asia-Pacific region in a five-day pocket tournament. Aside from winning a championship trophy, it’s an opportunity for the top teenage players to showcase their skills in front of international scouts.
“So there’s scouts coming out here, and this is a great invitation,” Dunn said. “You get to see all these kids down in high school and it’s kind of like back in New York, back in the United States, where they have the grassroots, AAU, UIPL, Under Armour, and you see those kids from growing up in high school to get to where I am. So this is going to be the same thing here now. You get to see these kids out in high school and scouts come and watch and you just grow from there.”
Dunn’s advice for the young players in this tournament is to focus on what’s in front of you.
“I would say some big advice for them is to really just control what you can control. That was my whole thing (in my rookie) season. Just learning, learning about the game, growing, and not trying to think too much about the outside noise and just focus on what kind of a better player and just putting your head down and working.
“This is a great tournament to have now, a great invitational, and it’s going to help them improve throughout their whole time playing against great players, not only from their country, playing from around the world. You get to see different basketball and different cultures in the game.”
Images from NBA Rising Stars Invitational