For the last couple of weeks, CBS Sports Network has been re-airing NCAA Tournament classic games in lieu of the 2020 tournament, which was canceled because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Saturday night’s nightcap was the 2003 national championship game between Syracuse and Kansas.

Syracuse, led by freshman forward Carmelo Anthony, defeated Kansas, 81-78, to win the Orange’s first national championship in basketball. Anthony declared for the NBA Draft shortly after the win and was selected with the No. 3 overall pick by the Denver Nuggets.

Jim Boeheim, who has been the head coach at Syracuse since 1976, participated in a Facebook Live video during the re-air of the 2003 title game. And during the course of the video, Boeheim made a stunning admission.

“Great nugget from this Facebook live on the @Cuse_MBB title game from 2003. Jim Boeheim claims if former assistant Troy Weaver didn't leave for the NBA, Syracuse would have landed Kevin Durant. An intriguing what if,” Yahoo Sports’ Pete Thamel tweeted.

Weaver, who is currently the Vice President of Basketball Operations for the Oklahoma City Thunder, left Syracuse following the 2003-04 season for a player personnel job with the Utah Jazz. He had been with Boeheim at Syracuse since 2000.

Durant, of course, signed with the Texas Longhorns and was the consensus national player of the year as a freshman during the 2006-07 season. Durant would go on to be selected with the No. 2 overall pick in the ’07 draft by the Seattle SuperSonics, who later became the Thunder.

Despite Boeheim’s assertion, Texas might have gotten the commitment from Durant anyway.

Texas basketball assistant Russell Springmann was scouting an event called ‘Slam Dunk at the Beach’ when he came across a willowy forward with soft touch on his long-range jumpers.

When Springmann called then-Texas coach Rick Barnes — Springmann was actually there scouting another player — to ask if he could offer, Barnes said sure. If this Kevin Durant really was one of the nation’s top players, what was the harm? Texas wasn’t likely to pull a five-star player out of Baltimore.

Fast-forward to the decision, and Durant picked the Longhorns over a cart-load of offers from more traditional blue-blood schools.

Durant averaged 25.8 points and 11.1 rebounds while at Texas. The Longhorns were 25-10 that season but were upset by USC in the second round of the NCAA Tournament, despite a 30-point, nine-rebound effort by Durant. The Longhorns star walked away with both the John R. Wooden Award and Naismith College Player of the Year award in 2007.

Kevin Durant Maillot,A Washington, D.C. native, Durant has become one of the NBA’s brightest stars in the last decade-plus. Durant, who has missed the entire 2019-20 season with an Achilles injury, averaged 27.0 points, 7.1 rebounds and 4.1 assists in the first 12 years of his NBA career. The 10-time All Star won the NBA MVP in 2014 and spent his first nine seasons with Seattle/Oklahoma City.

Durant signed with the NBA champion Golden State Warriors prior to the 2016-17 season and won two championships with the Warriors. Durant suffered an Achilles tendon injury during Golden State’s Finals loss to Toronto last season, then decided to sign with the Brooklyn Nets in the offseason.