Kevin Durant has had a legendary run in the NBA. He has won the MVP award twice, won three gold medals at the Olympics, and led the league in scoring four times. Undoubtedly, he will be inducted into the Hall of Fame on his first ballot and be remembered as one of the greatest players of his generation. But Durant, like many great players, thinks he’s left behind even more than football. Duane Rankin of the Arizona Republic asked Durant why he wasn’t more active in the “greatest of all time” conversation. KD said there was only one thing that was stopping him.
“Because I went to the Warriors,” Kevin Durant told Rankin. “Why shouldn’t I be in that? That’s the question you should ask. Why not? What haven’t I done?”
In 2016, Durant’s choice to join the Warriors was one of the most debated free-agent moves ever. The Warriors won the NBA title in 2015 and an NBA record 73 regular-season games that year. Many people thought Durant would win two titles with the Warriors when he signed.
What hasn’t KD done? In some ways, he’s right. He’s done a lot of the things that a candidate for best of all time should have done, but less often than other candidates. Think about how Durant is like Michael Jordan. Two wins belong to Durant, and six belong to Jordan. KD has won four scoring titles, and Jordan has won ten. He has one MVP, while Jordan has five. If you put those resumes next to each other, it’s hard to say that Durant did more in his time than Jordan. Of course, Durant’s career is still going on, but at 35, it’s hard to see him closing those huge gaps.
These things stay the same. Durant has had a great career. He is one of the best basketball players by almost every measure. Besides, he can do things that players like Michael Jordan and LeBron James can’t. The NBA has never seen someone with his size, shooting, and ball-handling skills. Someone might even say that these traits make Durant the best candidate for the role of player. You’d want to take the game-winning shot. That is a tougher place to guard Durant because he is bigger.
There’s nothing wrong with the fact that he doesn’t have as much experience as players like Jordan and James. It’s okay to be the 14th-best player of all time. Still, a rival as skilled as KD will not settle for anything less than the top spot. After all these years, he will quit as one of the best basketball players ever. To say that some other guys did a little better doesn’t take away from what he did.
