In light of LeBron’s Round 1 loss, Kevin Durant has taken over as the NBA’s best player while reaching a status akin to the level of LeBron James — at least, according to some. And after delivering some incredible masterpieces throughout this postseason, it’s almost hard to argue otherwise.
But when posed with the same narrative, Scottie Pippen fought back aggressively, providing some interesting points on why, in his mind, KD is not yet at the level of King James.
“James is a complete team player who understands team and winning. Has [Durant] gotten to that level yet? He went home,” Pippen told Yahoo Sports. “I think he still has some learning to do in terms of what it takes to will a team to victory.
I feel like [Durant has] always been this player,” Pippen said. “But I see a lot of a talk now going on about, ‘Has he surpassed LeBron James?’ Surpassing LeBron James takes a little bit more than an individual’s effort.”
Obviously, Pippen is not yet convinced. Even despite what Durant has shown us over the past few months, it’s still not enough for Scottie to put him in Bron’s territory.
While LeBron has also played with superteams in the past, he has carried and led his squads to the Finals on multiple occasions as well.
Besides this single season, where Brooklyn got bounced in Round 2, can the same be said for KD, who has always had at least one co-star to back him up and save the day when needed? Have we seen Durant carry and “will” his teams to victory the same way that Kobe, MJ, and LeBron did?
Clearly, not everyone thinks so, and it seems that the “Slim Reaper” still has some work to do if he wants to prove his doubters wrong.
