In the aftermath of his latest stint for Team USA, Kevin Durant has become a hot topic among fans and critics. According to former NBA guard Rashad McCants, Durant was not only the best player in the basketball Olympics, he was also the guy who “carried” Stephen Curry to back-to-back championships in 2017 and 2018.
“If [Kevin Durant really] wanted to put his foot down, he would be the MVP because [he’s] probably the best player on [Team USA]. He’s 7-foot, and he can shoot just as good as Steph [Curry], and he carried Steph to two championships,” said McCants. “So he can live through Steph’s success, too like ‘Yeah he’s me man’ but he knows what it is.”
As two of the greatest scorers ever, Kevin Durant and Stephen Curry are always being compared and it was the same when they linked up as teammates for Team USA this summer. It’s probably a stretch to say that Durant “carried” anyone during his championships but many would agree that he deserves more recognition for his role.
Durant will tell you that it was a group effort to win back-to-back championships but things might have turned out very differently had he not been there to give the Warriors an edge. LeBron James and the Cavaliers had already won the title back in 2016 after the Warriors went 73-9 in the regular season.
It was Durant who gave the advantage back to the Warriors and it was his arrival that put the championships out of reach for LeBron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers. To this day, Durant’s contributions to that team are grossly underappreciated just like it was for his play in the Olympics this year.
LeBron won the Olympic MVP for basketball this year after averaging 14.2 points, 6.8 rebounds, 8.5 assists, and 1.3 steals over six tournament games. He was a leader on and off the court for Team USA and consistently stepped up to deliver when the pressure was highest. Durant, now a 3x gold medalist, wasn’t too far behind in terms of individual performance.
Durant averaged 13.8 points this year, behind LeBron and Curry as the team’s third-highest scorer. After a quick stint off the bench as the Sixth Man, Durant got the start for Team USA against France, where he finished with 15 points on 5-12 shooting.
Now that the Paris Olympics are over, Durant will reshift his focus back to the NBA and his pursuit of the championship alongside Devin Booker and Bradley Beal. So far, with the Suns, Durant has been unable to replicate the success he had with Stephen Curry and the Warriors.
Alongside No. 30, Durant had his best stretch to date. In 168 games with Curry, Durant averaged 26.0 points, 5.9 assists, and 4.9 rebounds per game. Durant made the Finals three straight times and captured back-to-back Finals MVPs after winning the championship in 2017 and 2018.
With Durant, Curry, Klay Thompson, Draymond Green, and Andre Iguodala, the Warriors were a proper superteam and they had the entire NBA in a chokehold for years before Durant’s departure reset parity across the league. Today, even at 35, Kevin Durant is playing like one of the elites of the game and he’s doing everything he can to build up his legacy one game at a time.
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