The 2017 Finals was an absolute flex for Kevin Durant and the Golden State Warriors. After finishing with a 67-15 record in the regular season, Golden State went on a dominant tear through the playoffs, going 16-1 to win the NBA Championship.
That year was pumped full of narratives but, even as the Warriors stood atop the basketball world, it was LeBron James who still held the throne as the NBA’s best player in a lot of people’s minds.
According to Warriors star Draymond Green, that summer marked a change for his teammate at the time, Kevin Durant, who would go on to leave the team just two years later.
“In my opinion he got the best of ‘Bron [in the 2017 Finals], like Kevin was f—in rocking,” Green said via CBS Sports. “After that, that was kind of that moment of like, damn Kevin should be the best player in the NBA now because of what he just did to LeBron. And it’s like, you turn on the TV the next day, and the f—in headline is, ‘LeBron James still best player in the world?’ You’ve got Stephen A. [Smith], you’ve got all these people debating it, and everybody’s still saying LeBron James is the best player in the world. That’s when I kind of felt like it took a turn. And then we came back for the 2017-18 season, and Kevin just wasn’t as happy.”
To Green, Steph and Klay weren’t playing any differently than they always had been, rather it was Durant who had changed his tune.
“All of a sudden it was kind of just like, ‘F—, why’s Steph shooting this shot?’ or ‘F—, he ain’t pass the ball’ or ‘Why’s Klay shooting this shot?’ or ‘Why he ain’t pass the ball?’ And I’m just sitting there like, ‘Yo, that’s the same Klay and Steph I’ve always played with. Like, they ain’t playing no different than they’ve always played.’ And I know those two guys, they’re definitely not looking you off. They may not see you, because they’ve f—ing got tunnel vision at times, which most scorers do have tunnel vision at times, and that’s why they’re great scorers, but they ain’t gonna never just f—ing look you off. I’ve been playing with them since I came into this league. That ain’t who they are.”
Draymond says he feels KD changed when LeBron was still being considered the best player in the NBA after the 2017 Finals. https://t.co/dJd3yRP492
— Chris Montano (@gswchris) April 23, 2020
That series, Kevin Durant averaged 35.2 points, 8.2 rebounds, 5.4 assists, and 1.6 blocks per game on 55% shooting. He was crowned the Finals MVP as he secured his first NBA Championship.
He would go on to win again the following year, but has yet to ever truly eclipse LeBron on the NBA’s player hierarchy. With Kyrie Irving and the new-look Nets, is this the year he finally does it?
