Ever since he came back from a serious injury last season, Kevin Durant has played the best basketball of his career, becoming the leader the Brooklyn Nets need to aspire to the NBA championship.
Even though he was inches away from taking his team to the Eastern Conference finals last season, KD earned a lot of recognition around the league for his displays against the eventual champions Milwaukee Bucks. He played without Kyrie Irving and James Harden on one leg and still took put up a good fight against the Bucks.
This season, he’s playing as great as before, becoming one of the favorites to the 2022 MVP award alongside Stephen Curry, Giannis Antetokounmpo, and Nikola Jokic. He’s made a lot of noise in the past two seasons, surprising many people around the league.
Nevertheless, one that was unfazed about KD’s incredible return was an old rival, LeBron James. The Los Angeles Lakers superstar talked about KD ahead of the Lakers matchup against the Nets on Christmas Day, saying that he never doubted Durant would return to play at a high level.
Via Talk Basket:
“I think there was never any doubt from myself or anybody in this league, maybe KD maybe early on because it’s just that injury,” the four-time NBA champion said. “But I think once he got going and once he started seeing the improvement, I don’t think it was any doubt that he would come back in full strength.
“I heard there was only like really one group of people that had any doubt on him coming back full strength, I’m not going to name them, I’ll let you guys do that research.
“But other than that, no, there was zero doubt that I knew he would come back at full strength. He’s not a guy who carries a bunch of muscle and a bunch of weight on his body, very slender and slim. So it wasn’t much pounding going on on that particular area that he had to worry about.
“And he doesn’t look like someone that sits around and doesn’t take care of what he needs to take care of. It was never a question about KD coming back from any injury. That’s just the player and the person that he is.”
Durant was playing great basketball before he entered the league’s health and safety protocols. He was the leading MVP candidate according to NBA.com before this happened, so you know he was on to something.
In 27 games, the 2x NBA champion averaged 29.7 points, 7.9 rebounds and 5.9 assists per outing, shooting 52.3% from the field and 38.2% from beyond the arc.
Hopefully, KD is cleared to return to the court before Christmas Day’s game and we get to see a James-Durant Christmas matchup for the first time since 2018. That would be incredible for fans.
