LeBron James and Kevin Durant’s rivalry is still hot and this season we’ll see another edition of it. Durant is returning from an Achilles injury during the 2019 NBA Finals and now is trying to demonstrate he can lead the Brooklyn Nets to the championship without the help of Stephen Curry, Klay Thompson and Draymond Green. On the other side, LeBron is coming off a season in which he captured his fourth NBA championship, the first one in 10 years for the Los Angeles Lakers.
These two men are ready to go at it and the comparisons between them have started again. Recently, Brian Scalabrine chimed in on the KD-LeBron debate, making it clear that they are two different players, and LeBron is the one who makes the people around him better. On a recent edition of his podcast “Scal and Pals,” Scalabrine explained the differences between LeBron and Durant, pointing out how different it is going to be for Kyrie to play with Durant compared to when he played with James.
“I know a lot of people are looking at the best version of KD before the Achilles injury, or Kyrie from years ago — if everyone was their best, maybe, but that’s not how basketball works. Kyrie, when he won his title, he played with LeBron James, who makes everyone around him better. KD is not LeBron; he’s a very different player, and isn’t someone who makes everyone around him better like that. I don’t think they’re tougher than a lot of teams, and I don’t see them being a top-10 defensive team”, ex-NBA player Brian Scalabrine said, via USA Today.
“I don’t think their talent is good enough to win a championship”, he added.
LeBron has been famous for being a pass-first guy, mostly in the last years of his career. Durant is one of the greatest scorers in the history of the league and between these styles of play, it looks like Bron’s has been more successful than Durant’s. However, we can talk about this all the time we want but when they take the court, that’s when things change.
Plenty of people are rooting to see the Lakers and Nets clashing in the Finals for all the stories behind that matchup. If they both make it, that would be the perfect time to settle this debate.
