Kevin Durant is one of the three defining faces of this generation’s NBA. He joined the league in 2007 and has been playing at the highest level ever since, even overcoming debilitating injuries. However, despite Durant’s high status in the modern game, he never finds himself touted as one of the GOATS of the game.
Durant expressed his disappointment about the same in a recent interview, claiming it’s because of his stint with the Golden State Warriors.
“Because I went to the Warriors. Why shouldn’t I be in that? That’s the question you should ask. Why not? What haven’t I done?”
Durant joined the Golden State Warriors in 2016 after they went 73-9 in the regular season and choked in the 2016 NBA Finals against LeBron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers. Durant himself had led the Thunder in a 3-1 choke against the Warriors, so joining Golden State to get easy championships was massively frowned upon.
Despite securing two Finals MVPs over Stephen Curry in 2017 and 2018, fans don’t give KD much credit for those titles, given how much better the Warriors were than the rest of the NBA after acquiring KD.
KD is a two-time champion, two-time Finals MVP, the 2014 MVP, 13-time all-Star, 10-time All-NBA, and a four-time scoring champion.
How Can Kevin Durant Earn A Spot In GOAT Talks?
People try to put asterisks on different players’ achievements to push certain agendas, and Durant’s two titles and Finals MVPs are often treated that way. While that is completely unfair, there’s a large chunk of NBA fans who won’t be able to place KD over Stephen Curry and LeBron James until he wins a title on his own. He came close with the Brooklyn Nets and now has to win a title with the Phoenix Suns.
The second KD wins a title from outside of the shadow of the Warriors or Curry, fans will be able to give him more credit as one of the greatest players of all time. Unfortunately, there may be no entering the GOAT conversation for Durant at this point, even though he’s bound to end his career as a top-five NBA scorer of all time.
Even with a third title and a possible third Finals MVP, he’ll lag behind the achievements of both Steph and LeBron from this era. Steph, in particular, will be a tough player to get over for KD as Curry won a title before teaming up with KD and then after teaming up with him. KD is still searching for his first non-Curry title.
LeBron James is competing to be the No. 1 player of all time without question, so naturally, KD cannot match up to those achievements anytime soon. He can’t even match up to the likes of Kobe Bryant, Tim Duncan, Shaquille O’Neal, and more, so it’s likely KD will retire without getting the recognition he thinks he deserves.
To me, he’ll always be a legend and arguably a top-ten player of all time. But considering him to be one of the GOATs might be a little too far.
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